Special report on the Florida Gators softball team:
DeLand, Fla. – The sixth-ranked Florida softball team downed Stetson, 7-0, Tuesday afternoon at Patty Wilson Field. UF’s shutout of the Hatters is the team’s 11th of the season.
The Gators (26-3) earned the two-hit shutout on the arms of freshman starter Lexie Delbrey (9-1) and fifth year graduate Natalie Lugo. Delbrey hurled 5.0 innings with seven strikeouts and allowed only one hit and a pair of walks, while Lugo cleaned up the final two innings with three strikeouts and relinquished only one hit.
Florida struck early in the game when redshirt-junior Skylar Wallace (1-for-1) plated freshman leadoff batter Kendra Falby (2-for4) via a sacrifice fly to right field. Falby led the game off with a single to left field and advanced to scoring position when she stole 22nd base of the year.
The Orange and Blue added some insurance in the top of the 4th inning and took a 2-0 lead on freshman Reagan Walsh’s (1-for-4) fifth home run of the season. The Redondo Beach, Calif. native belted the 1-1 offering from Stetson starting pitcher Lauren Hobbs (3-6) over the left field wall for her second homer in as many games.
The offense picked back up the scoring in the 5th inning of play when Falby opened the inning with a triple to right center field and scored shortly after on a wild pitch to extend the lead out to 3-0.
Senior Charla Echols (2-for-3) followed up Falby later in the frame as she belted a two-run home run over the right center field wall to push the lead out to 5-0. The blast from the Newnan, Ga. native scored Wallace, who reached on an infield single to second base in the previous at-bat.
The Gators tacked on two more runs in the 7th inning via an RBI single by Echols that plated Wallace and senior Cheyenne Lindsey completed her 3-for-3 performance when she plated pinch-runner Sarah Longley on a single up the middle.
Florida and Stetson will face each other again at 6 p.m. Wednesday, March 23, at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium. The contest is set to air on SEC Network +.
Notables:
* The Gators turned in their 11th shutout of the season behind a combined two-hit performance from freshman Lexie Delbrey and fifth year graduate Natalie Lugo.
* Redshirt-junior Skylar Wallace and freshman Kendra Falby each stole a base in this afternoon’s contest.
* Wallace is now 23-for-23 on the season and Falby is 22-for-24 on the season and the due currently ranks first and second in the SEC respectively.
* Senior Cheyenne Lindsey notched her 10th multi-hit game of the season after going 3-for-3 at the plate.
* The 3-for-3 performances ties her career-high in hits and it’s the ninth time in her career that she has tallied three hits in a game.
* Freshman Reagan Walsh belted her fifth home run of the season and second in as many games. The Redondo Beach, Calif. native currently leads the team in the category.
* Senior Charla Echols notched her fourth home run of the season with a two-run shot over the right center field wall. She finished the game with three RBI total.
* The Newnan, Ga. native leads the team with 32 RBI on the season.
* Freshman Kendra Falby picked up her team-leading 14th multi-hit game of the season after going 2-for-4 at the plate with a triple. The triple is her third of the season.
* The Gators as a whole have 15 triples on the season, which is the third most triples in a single season in program history.