Super Regional Softball preview for Florida

The Florida Gators finished a perfect 3-0 to win the Gainesville regional last week and advance to the Super Regional this weekend. Sweeping the regional was great, but the Gators were the only team in the country not to allow a run during their regional as Florida outscored their opponents 14-0 last weekend.

Florida will once again be at home this weekend as they will host the Kentucky Wildcats in the Gainesville Super Regional, where the winner will advance to the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City.

The good news for Florida is that the Gators swept Kentucky during a 3-game regular season series this year in Gainesville.

 

How the teams got to the Super’s

Florida shut out Florida A&M 6-0 on Friday night and followed that with a 7-0 win over Hofstra on Saturday. Sunday wasn’t an easy one for the Gators against Florida Atlantic, but the Gators got the job done by winning 1-0 in 8 innings to advance.

Kentucky had a little bit tougher road due to the fact the Wildcats had to go to the Notre Dame regional in order to advance. The Wildcats beat Northwestern on Friday 5-4 and followed that up by shutting out Ball State 5-0 on Saturday. Kentucky beat the host team Notre Dame 4-3 on Sunday to advance.

 

 

In the batter’s box:

Florida comes in with a .312 batting average and 72 home runs but the bats have been somewhat quiet as of late. The Gators only managed to score nine runs during the season series this year as well.

Kentucky is hitting .241 this year with 46 home runs and an on base percentage of .395 this year. The Wildcats did strike out 291 times this year while walking 156 times. Kentucky, however, was shut out twice in Gainesville earlier this year.

In the circle:

Florida is back to dominating opponents in the circle and the Gators now have a 1.73 ERA and have struck out 439 batters this year, which leads the SEC. Florida dominated Kentucky in Gainesville earlier this year by shutting out the Wildcats twice.

Kentucky comes in with a 2.75 ERA in 379.2 innings pitched but did hold the Gators to just nine runs when the two teams met in Gainesville this year. One of those games was a 1-0 win by the Gators.

Players to watch:

For Florida, the Gators will rely on Lauren Haeger who has a 1.34 ERA and lead the Gators last weekend in the Regional in the circle as well as at the plate. Haeger is hitting .335 with 15 home runs and 63 RBI’s this year.

The Gators need Kelsey Stewart to get it going this weekend after struggling last weekend but she still has a .451 batting average and has 10 triples.

Kentucky will rely on Nikki Sagermann at the plate as she’s hitting .308 with eight home runs and 23 home runs this year.

In the circle Kentucky will rely on Kelsey Nunley to pitch against Florida and this year she has a 2.39 ERA and is 14-14 this year.

 

This weekend’s Super Regional will be a tough task for Florida if they hope to get back to the WCWS but all games will be televised for fans to watch. Here’s the schedule for this weekend.

Game 1 on Saturday at 1:00 on ESPNU

Game 2 on Sunday at 12:00 on ESPN

Game 3 if necessary on Sunday at 3:00 on ESPN

Andrew Spivey
Andrew always knew he wanted to be involved with sports in some capacity. He began by coaching high school football for six years before deciding to pursue a career in journalism. While coaching, he was a part of two state semifinal teams in the state of Alabama. Given his past coaching experience, he figured covering recruiting would be a perfect fit. He began his career as an intern for Rivals.com, covering University of Florida football recruiting. After interning with Rivals for six months, he joined the Gator Country family as a recruiting analyst. Andrew enjoys spending his free time on the golf course and watching his beloved Atlanta Braves. Follow him on Twitter at @AndrewSpiveyGC.