A day after senior third baseman Corrie Brooks had two errors in one of her worst fielding days as a Florida Gator, Brooks more than redeemed herself with a stellar defensive play that sealed the third-ranked Gators’ 1-0 win over East Carolina in the final day of the Lipton Invitational.
With neither team being able to figure out the opposing team’s ace, Coach Tim Walton’s Gators (9-1) were clinging to a 1-0 lead off senior Francesca Enea’s RBI single in the top of the first, Florida’s only hit in the contest.
Junior Stephanie Brombacher (7-1) put together a dominating performance, striking out seven batters while only allowing two hits and three walks in her second complete-game shutout in as many days. Brombacher went pitch-for-pitch with her counterpart, Toni Paisley, who only allowed one hit and two walks, all game long.
But for the second-straight day against the Pirates, Brombacher found herself having to deliver in the seventh inning to preserve a tight victory. A day earlier, Brombacher struck out the final East Carolina batter to go home a 4-3 winner.
This time around, she would need a little help from her defense.
After surrendering a lead-off double and a sacrifice bunt, Brombacher was staring down the tying run at third base with only one out. It felt like déjà vu when Brombacher sent the next batter back to the dugout on strikes, but the next batter would not go down so easily.
The ball was rocketed down the third base line, where Brooks was waiting. Brooks knocked down the ball and picked it up off the dirt before firing a laser to first. The play couldn’t have been much closer, but Brooks’ precision was enough to preserve the win.
Brooks said she wasn’t sure that her throw was in time, as the umpire made everyone wait a few seconds before calling the final out, but Brombacher was never in doubt.
“Corrie’s probably one of the best third basemen in the country,” Brombacher said. “As soon as she got it and had the ball in her hand, I said, ‘Alright. We got this.’”
But one thing Brooks was sure about was the impact that such a huge play had on getting her confidence back on track.
“[It felt] really good,” Brooks said. “I needed that a lot. Not just to make a routine play but a great play, and a play that kept us from going to extra innings.”
Walton wasn’t fazed by the game-saving play, and even suggested that he expected more from Brooks on the play. If nothing else, it suggested that he had the utmost confidence in her glove and knew the outcome wasn’t in doubt.
“I expect her to make that play cleanly, as opposed to the ball coming out of her glove,” Walton said. “Opposite-field hit off of a left-handed, stand-in bat knowing the ball-spin has the opposite direction on it. It was a good job knocking it down and keeping it from probably being a double and throwing from her knees across the diamond. Obviously the effort is always going to be there with all of our players.”
The effort was there, but it was a big play in a game that had very few. As Brombacher has shown the past few outings, she can still lead her team to victory without the help of a breakout offensive performance.
“We’re 10 games in, and she’s had some early-season tests,” Walton said. “She’s done a good job of really stepping up and knowing when she had to elevate her game to another level.”
Brombacher’s confidence is growing with each tight win, and the offense has certainly felt a weight lift off their collective shoulders, knowing that they may only need to provide that one key hit for their ace.
“Even though we only scored one run this game, we know she can keep the teams off-balance and shut them out,” Brooks said. “It’s not all on us. We don’t have to score four runs each game, you know? It’s good to see that we scored only one run this game and still got the win.”
Although it was already the third time this season Florida and East Carolina met, it was the first time they faced Paisley for the full seven. Paisley went 3.2 innings in relief in Saturday’s meeting, and Florida was only able to muster a run off Enea’s late home run. This time around, Florida’s only score was unearned after a passed ball allowed Aja Paculba to move to third.
“I told our kids even last weekend, when we didn’t face her, that she’ll be one of the best pitchers we’ll face in the early season,” Walton said. “Obviously, it was true.”
Needless to say, Florida has seen enough of East Carolina and is ready to move on, but they will do so knowing that they battled through a tough series that will help them down the road.
“Absolutely,” Walton said when asked if he was happy to be done with the Pirates. “Get back to somebody else. When you play three games, you start to know somebody too. You start to make different pitches. Becoming a little bit more familiar, it’s almost like becoming an SEC-type series. It was tough. All three games were very tough games.”
Seeing his team buckle down and win those types of games one weekend after his Gators gave up lots of runs, Walton has seen progress, but he knows it is just the beginning of a long season.
“We definitely made a step [this weekend],” Walton said. “I think we’ve still got some work to do defensively. I think we’ve still got some work to do offensively. I think we’ve still got some work to do on our pitching staff…But I thought in the crunch time we made some good plays.”
Getting some first-hand experience in the clutch is crucial for when the Gators actually play an SEC series. They will go in knowing they can get a huge hit, as Enea showed with her late home run on Saturday, or a dynamite performance from inside the circle, as Brombacher showed over the weekend. If all else fails, Brooks showed that the defense is there to stop any leaks. With a few more steps like these, the Gators will be more than ready for what’s to come.