Florida Gators softball takes series over LSU

A special report from the UAA on the Florida Gators softball team:

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – No. 5 Florida clinched the series over No. 13 LSU with a 7-4 victory Saturday afternoon at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium. Hannah Adams posted a career-high four hits, while Jaimie Hoover and Kendyl Lindaman launched a pair of two-run home runs to seal the victory.

The Gators (23-3, 7-1 SEC) cranked out 12 hits and kept the pressure on the Tigers (18-10, 4-4 SEC) the entire game as leadoff batters for the Orange & Blue were 4-for-6 (.667) at the plate and the team as a whole was 9-for-22 (.409) with runners on base.

Florida used that pressure to capitalize early and often to start the game. Adams set that tempo from the beginning as she started the game with a single through the right side and was quickly driven home via Lindaman’s fifth home run of the season of LSU starting pitcher Ali Kilponen (5-4).

Kilponen issued Charla Echols a walk in the next at-bat and managed to force a pair of groundouts in an attempt to escape the inning, but Hoover took a 3-1 pitch that was low and away opposite field for just her second home run of the season.

The pair of two-run home runs by Lindaman and Hoover in the 1^st inning gave the Gators an early 4-0 lead and a cushion for left-handed starting pitcher Katie Chronister (6-1).

Chronister worked through the Tigers lineup in order for the first two innings of play and didn’t give up her first hit until 3^rd inning with two outs on the board.

Meanwhile the Gators were able to tack on one run in both the 2^nd and 3^rd innings to take 5-0 lead. Echols produced an RBI infield single to third that scored Sarah Longley in the 2^nd and a Adams drove home Hoover with her RBI single up the middle in the 3rd.

LSU finally connected against Chronister in the 4^th inning of play and rallied to close down the Florida lead to 6-4 via four runs on five hits. Natalie Lugo entered the circle with one out in the inning and held the Tigers bats in check as she scattered three hits over the final 3.2 innings for her third save of the season.

Florida tacked on an insurance run in the bottom of the 5^th after the LSU rally via a Julia Cottrill RBI double that scored Adams easily and nearly plated the speedy Katie Kistler, but a good 7-6-2 relay to home plate just made it time to catch Kistler’s outstretched arm.

The Gators and the Tigers will wrap up the series Sunday at 11 a.m. (ET) on the SEC Network +.