A day after Florida’s offense exploded for a record-breaking six home runs in a 7-0 victory over Campbell on the first day of Lipton Invitational, the third-ranked Gators turned to its new ace to bring home the victory.
With the game on the line in the bottom of the seventh inning against East Carolina, the outcome of the game fell on junior Stephanie Brombacher’s shoulders, and she buckled down to deliver a 4-3 victory over the Pirates.
The win was the second for Brombacher (6-1, 3.28 ERA) on the day as she also helped coach Tim Walton’s Gators cruise to a five-inning 8-0 victory over Marshall. The Gators will play East Carolina for the third time this season on Sunday at 12:15 p.m. in the third and final day of the tournament.
Brombacher showed guts and resilience on a day when she didn’t have her best stuff. She surrendered her third home run of the season to Marina Gusman-Brown to start the seventh inning, putting her in a position where every pitch mattered as Florida clung to a one-run lead.
“My curveball wasn’t really working that well, so I had to make due with my screwball,” Brombacher said. “She hit out a curveball. I need to be a little bit better with my pitches, a little sharper.”
Brombacher walked the next batter before settling down for a strikeout. After a sacrifice bunt, East Carolina sent in pinch-hitter Priscilla Velasquez for a do-or-die situation.
“It always kind of scares me when they put people in from off the bench,” Brombacher said. “For some reason, those people always get the luckiest hits. She wouldn’t swing at me inside, so we just kept going back inside. It’s fun to get in there and just put her away.”
Brombacher sent Valasquez home looking on strikes, a statement that signaled she is more than capable of handling her new role as the staff ace.
It’s certainly a statement that has the rest of the team believing in her.
“I think with her getting that big strikeout at the end it gives her confidence to know in tougher games that she can do it again,” said senior Francesca Enea.
It didn’t hurt that Enea gave her a little breathing room with her deep home run to left field just an inning before. Brombacher was more than grateful after the game, calling out to thank Enea as she walked past during interviews. Enea simply played cool about what amounted to the game-winning homer. As Florida’s career home run leader, she’s had her fair share of those experiences.
“Yeah,” Enea said coyly. “I mean she gave me three changeups, and I kind of took the last one and said, ‘No mo’.’”
The long ball was Enea’s second of the day. She had one in the opening game against Marshall. Enea, who went 3-6 with four RBI on the day, now leads the team in batting average at .393, home runs at five and RBI at 16.
But Brombacher’s performance was even more impressive considering that she had to carry the pitching load almost single-handedly on Saturday. Her clutch strikeout came at the tail end of a 4.1-inning relief performance, in which she gave up four hits and four walks while striking out eight. The home run was the only run she gave up all day.
Freshman Erin Schuppert was given the game-two start, going only 2.2 innings after giving up two hits, two walks and two runs.
In the opener, Brombacher went five innings, surrendering five hits and a walk while striking out five in her first complete-game shutout of the season.
Brombacher was told to be ready for a relief performance in the second game, but she had no idea she would come in so early.
“I expected to come in and close, but not that early,” Brombacher said. “He (Walton) told me to be ready to come in, but I kind of hoped it would be a little bit later.”
It was easy to see why Walton didn’t hesitate to lean on Brombacher, facing an East Carolina team that gave Florida a 4-3 dogfight for the second time this season. Although it seems like Brombacher has gotten a lot of work in the Invitational, everything went according to Walton’s plan.
“I thought today was going to be the toughest day of our season to this point before we got into it,” Walton said. “Obviously, it showed you with Stephanie Brombacher coming in that early. I’ve been holding Stephanie. I pulled her out early yesterday, only letting her throw five innings. She threw five innings today with a run-rule. So I figured I had a four-inning reserve on her. Now she’s only thrown probably one extra inning on the tournament that she would’ve thrown in two complete games. I feel good about where she’s at for sure.”
Although the Gators’ offense didn’t quite match their record-breaking performance of the night before, Florida still turned to the long ball several times on Saturday. To go along with Enea’s two homers, junior Kelsey Bruder and sophomore Michelle Moultrie each added a deep ball of their own in the victory over Marshall. The home run was the second in as many days for Moultrie, already tying her mark from last year.
“BP-wise she crushes it,” Walton said. “It’s just about getting comfortable. Today, bunt, bunt, bunt, 3-1 home run. That’s the thing. Her bunt game is going to open up some things for her. She wasn’t able to bunt last year. Now she’s able to bunt, bunt, bunt and do some other things. When the pitcher’s trying to get her over on strikes, she hits it over the fence. It’s good to see her do something like that.”
Freshman Brittany Schutte also had a big day for Florida. In the first game, she went 2-for-2 with a double, triple and two RBI. She followed that up with an RBI double in the second game. Junior Aja Paculba went 2-for-2 with a triple and an RBI in the first game. Junior Tiffany DeFelice knocked in two doubles in the second game, one bringing home a run. Freshman Brittany Walker went 2-for-3 with an RBI in the second game.
Needless to say, the Gators are getting production from every part of their lineup. There’s no telling where the next big hit is going to come from.
“Everybody’s been coming up with some big hits, momentum-changers, momentum-shifters,” Walton said. “I’m very pleased with the way we’re coming back and swinging bats after a couple of adjustments here and there. Every at bat, it’s been somebody different coming up with a big hit.”
As long as the lineup keeps producing, Stephanie Brombacher won’t have to face too many more do-or-die situations down the road. But she showed on Saturday that when she does stare down a batter with the game on the line, she will be more than capable of walking out of the circle with another victory under her belt.