The fourth-ranked Florida Gators came into the season knowing that they would have to lean on junior right-hander Stephanie Brombacher to hold teams back and help carry the Gators to victory. But if Brombacher wasn’t on her game, it wasn’t clear if the Gators would have anywhere else to turn.
On Sunday, freshman Ensley Gammel relieved a struggling Brombacher and closed out Florida’s 5-3 victory over Mississippi that gave the Gators (18-3, 2-1 SEC) the series victory. Gammel gave up just one hit and one walk while striking out three in two innings of relief to shut the door on the Rebels (16-10, 3-2 SEC).
It was a bit of a role-reversal for the two pitchers, as Brombacher is usually the one to put the finishing touches on a victory after a Gammel start, so Gammel was more than happy to return the favor.
“Stephanie’s a great pitcher,” Gammel said. “She’s picked me up many a time, so it was my turn to step up and help her out a little bit.”
Gammel entered the game after Brombacher gave up a leadoff home run in the sixth inning that cut the lead to two, a day after Brombacher gave up the game-tying home run in the seventh inning. With Brombacher giving up nine hits and a walk in five innings of work, it was clear she wasn’t on her “A” game Sunday, so it was a prime opportunity to see what the freshman had.
“Obviously, to put her in a game up by two late in the game says a lot about how I felt she pitched yesterday,” Florida head coach Tim Walton said. “She came out and showed us a little bit more today.”
Gammel immediately retired the next three batters, but found out firsthand that the feisty Rebels were going to give her everything they had in an attempt to pull out another late-inning victory. Gammel surrendered a leadoff single before striking out the next batter. After a walk and a ground out that advanced the runners to second and third, Gammel was staring down her first crucial SEC moment as a Gator.
Gammel said she wasn’t nervous in the situation, but she could feel the adrenaline pumping. Only one thing was running through her mind.
“Get her out,” Gammel said. “I wanted her to hit my best pitch, not accidentally hang one, especially since there was a base open. So I just figured I would walk her or strike her out or make her hit a weak ground ball.”
With her best pitch, the drop-curve, Gammel sealed the deal with her third strikeout of the game. After a few shaky early-season outings by Gammel, it was a sign that she is gaining the confidence needed to perform the way Walton expected when he recruited her.
“I just figured I’m a freshman, so I should step up and help my team out and really help them believe that I can do what Stephanie does and hope that they have the confidence in me,” Gammel said. “So I just went out there and proved that I could do it.”
The Gators were aided by a more opportunistic offense than the one that left 17 runners on base in Saturday’s loss. The Gators left seven runners on base Sunday but were able to put five runs across the plate on four hits and eight walks.
“I look at leaving runners on base as a positive and a negative,” Walton said. “You’ve gotta get runners on to leave runners on. We weren’t as clutch yesterday with two outs getting runs in.”
Junior Megan Bush started things off right for Florida’s bats in the bottom of the second, with a hit into the right-field corner that she legged out into a stand-up triple, the first of her career, sending home Tiffany DeFelice to cut the lead to 2-1.
“It was so much fun,” Bush said. “I’d never done it. I was pretty much in shock. I was really excited that I could start the team off that way for the day.”
After the next two batters went down on strikes, it appeared as if the Gators would pick up where they left off on Saturday by leaving Bush stranded at third. But junior Aja Paculba bucked the trend and hit her third home run of the year to left field to give the Gators a lead they would not relinquish this time around.
Bush went on to knock in two more runs, one off a third-inning sacrifice fly and another off a fifth-inning single. Paculba added a double in the fourth inning, as no other Gators notched a hit in the game.
That number is a little misleading, as the Gators were certainly effective at getting on base, drawing eight walks to bring their weekend total to 26.
“We’re a patient team,” Walton said. “If you get an umpire that calls a strike a strike, we’ll walk a lot because we don’t chase a lot of pitches. I think that’s a good sign of a team that sees the ball very well. Be patient. Let them come to you.”
Although Saturday’s loss already leaves the Gators with as many conference losses as they had each of the past two seasons, Walton said that simply winning a series in the SEC is still an accomplishment, no matter how high his past two teams raised the bar.
“In the SEC, I don’t expect anything,” Walton said. “No one’s going to give us anything. Winning two out of three is a successful weekend. Obviously a sweep would’ve been a great weekend.
“We’re accustomed to winning here. We haven’t lost more than one game in the SEC in a couple of years, so that’s something we talked about. It wasn’t a goal of ours to go undefeated. It was to take series, and we took a series today.”
Maybe more importantly, the Gators were able to get some solid experience for their freshman starting pitcher, something that will pay more dividends down the road than the difference of one game in the standings.