AUBURN, Ala. – The No. 1 Florida Gators found the right recipe for rebounding from only their third loss of the season: The long ball and two strong pitching performances by senior All-American Stacey Nelson.
Nelson threw Florida’s 21st shutout of the season (her 11th) in the opener, stopping Auburn on two hits as Ali Gardiner and Michelle Moultrie provided home runs in a 3-0 victory.
Then in the nightcap, Nelson relieved sophomore Stephanie Brombacher and was the beneficiary of a grand-slam home run by Francesca Enea in the fifth inning as the Gators completed the Southeastern Conference doubleheader sweep with a 7-1 triumph.
Florida (36-3, 15-1 SEC East) saw its 23-game winning streak snapped on Sunday in a 6-4 loss to No. 5 Alabama, but coach Tim Walton’s Gators eventually got their bats rolling at the right time against Auburn (25-12, 5-6 SEC West). The Gators return home to take on Mississippi State in a three-game series beginning with a Saturday doubleheader.
Back-to-back two-out doubles by Corrie Brooks and Megan Bush in the fourth inning of the second game gave Brombacher and the Gators a 1-0 lead. But Auburn got a leadoff homer by Lindsey Harrelson in the bottom of the evening – the first surrendered by Brombacher this season.
After Brombacher, who is 36-0 in two seasons at Florida, allowed a single and walk following the blast, Walton brought in Nelson and she got the Tigers out 1-2-3, the last two on strikeouts.
Nelson, who earned her 19th victory in the opener, ended up pitching the final four innings and allowed just one hit – a single by Myesha Finney – and one walk while striking out three for her 20th victory in 23 decisions.
The Gators broke the 1-1 tie with four runs in the top of the fifth off losing pitcher Jenee Loree. With one out, Aja Paculba singled and stole second, advancing to third on a throwing error by the catcher. Tiffany DeFelice walked (Brooke Johnson ran for her and stole second) and Gardiner walked to load the bases.
Enea, who earlier in the day joined Nelson as two of the 25 finalists for USA Softball’s Collegiate Player of the Year, then hit her team-leading 11th home run to left, giving her a team-high 48 RBI on the season and Florida a 5-1 lead.
DeFelice later singled home Paculba and Moultrie, who had a pinch-hit double, for a 7-1 Florida lead in the sixth inning. Florida finished with eight hits in the game, two by Brooks.
In the first game, Moultrie muscled up with a pinch-hit homer in the top of the seventh that gave Nelson some breathing room. The Gators had taken a 2-0 lead on a third-inning, 2-run home run by Gardiner, who had two of Florida’s five hits off losing pitcher Anna Thompson. The homer was Gardiner’s fourth of the season.
Moultrie, a freshman from Jacksonville, just missed bailing out Nelson and the Gators Sunday when her potential, game-winning, 3-run home run with two outs came up just a few feet short and Florida fell 6-4 in the third game of its home series with No. 5 Alabama.
Walton sent Moultrie to the plate to pinch hit for Alicia Sisco in the top of the seventh, and Moultrie hit her second homer of the season to provide Nelson a 3-0 lead and the senior right-hander did the rest, sending the Tigers down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the seventh.
Nelson allowed a pair of singles – by Myesha Finney in the fourth inning and Amber Harrison in the fifth inning – didn’t walk anyone and struck out nine in the opener. Thompson, a junior right-hander, allowed only five hits but walked four with four strikeouts for Auburn.