FULLERTON, CA — Florida’s third-ranked softball team improved to 16-2 Sunday by beating UC-Davis, 14-3, followed by a 13-1 rout over Loyola Marymount, in the DeMarini Invitational Tournament.
Florida continued to flex its muscles in the tournament. In game one, All-American Francesca Enea went 3-4, hitting her fourth grand slam of the season and third of the tournament while extending her hitting streak to a career-best 11 games. The home run was the tenth of the season for Enea, who moved into a tie for second place on the all-time Southeastern Conference list with 51. Enea is hitting .462 with 34 runs batted in so far this season.
Enea’s home run was one of four the Gators hit in game one. Megan Bush, Tiffany DeFelice and Samanthan Holle all hit homers in the contest shortened to five innings due to the mercy rule.
The Gators took a 1-0 lead in the first and put the game away with an eight-run second inning, started by DeFelice, who walloped her fourth homer of the season to lead things off. One out later, Holle homered to right center, her first home run of the year to make it a 3-0 game. Brittany Walker (walk), Aja Paculba (single) and Michelle Moultrie (hit by pitch) loaded the bases for Enea, who pulled the ball over the fence in left field for her third grand slam of the tournament. The Gators scored two more runs before UC-Davis could put out the fire.
In the Florida third, Kelsey Bruder delivered a run-scoring double pinch-hitter Kelsey Horton smacked a two-run double to account for Florida’s scoring as the Gators increased the lead to 12-0.
In the Florida fourth, Bush hammered a two-run homer to complete the scoring for the Gators.
Stephanie Brombacher pitched three innings of hitless ball to get the win, improving her record to 12-2 and lowering her ERA to 1.66. Erin Schuppert gave up three runs in two innings of relief.
The home run assault continued in the second game as Bush hit her second and third homers of the day, both of them in the second inning when the Gators batted around and scored eight times, and Pauculba added another one for good measure. Bush went 3-3 in the second game, 5-5 for the day, finishing with three home runs and seven runs batted in.
Freshman Ensley Gammel got her third win of the season in game two, allowing just two hits and one run in the contest that was shortened to five innings due to the mercy rule. Gammel struck our four and didn’t allow a walk while lowering her ERA to 2.95.
Florida scored two in the first and eight in the second against Loyola Marymount to put the game away early.
Paculba hit her second home run of the season to lead the game off as part of the two-run first. In the second, Bush led off with a home run to left center. Brittany Schutte hit a two-out three-run double and she came home when Horton singled up the middle. Corrie Brooks hit a run-scoring single and she came home when Brooks unloaded her second home run of the inning to center field.
The Gators completed their scoring in the top of the fifth with three runs, one of them scoring on a single by Holle through the left side of the infield and the other on a sacrifice fly by Moultrie.
Through 18 games this season, the Gators have hit 40 home runs while hitting .347 as a team. Opponents are managing only .207 against Florida pitching and they’ve hit only six home runs.
The Gators begin Southeastern Conference play in Athens Wednesday when they take on sixth-ranked Georgia in a doubleheader beginning at 4 p.m. The games will be televised on Cox Sports Channel.