BATON ROUGE, La. – You can add another checkmark to goals accomplished by the No. 1 Florida Gators softball team in 2009.
Coach Tim Walton’s Gators extended their current winning streak to 11, their shutout streak to five and their innings without allowing a run to 39 with a 3-0, 1-0 sweep of No. 18 Louisiana State before 1,679 fans at the new Tiger Park. The victories were the first-ever in Baton Rouge for Walton, now in his fourth season as Florida’s head coach.
But more important, the two shutouts by “NelsonBacher” – the Gators’ right-handed pitching duo of senior Stacey Nelson and sophomore Stephanie Brombacher – allowed the Gators (45-3, 22-1 SEC) to clinch their second straight Southeastern Conference title and third in the program’s history.
In the first game, Nelson struck out six and allowed five hits while watching her nation-leading ERA drop to 0.43 with her 14th shutout of the season. It was Nelson’s 23rd complete game.
The Gators jumped out quickly for a 2-0 lead when junior Francesca Enea crushed a two-out, first-pitch homer over the left-field wall even though the wind was blowing in. The home run scored senior Ali Gardiner, who has been in a recent slump but had singled. It was Enea’s team-leading 15th home run and upped her team-leading RBI total to 56.
Nelson struck out the side in the bottom of the second and the Gators later added a single run in the fourth with some small ball. Junior Corrie Brooks had a leadoff walk and went to second on a sacrifice bunt by sophomore Megan Bush. Senior Kristina Hilberth then singled to center to move Brooks to third base and she scored on freshman Michelle Moultrie’s sacrifice fly to right field. It was Moultrie’s 15th RBI of the season.
Nelson got help from her defense. With one out and one on in the sixth, sophomore right fielder Kelsey Bruder ran down Juliana Santos’ drive into the gap.
The Tigers had runners on first and third with two outs in the seventh when third baseman Brooks made a diving catch in foul territory to end the game.
LSU used three pitchers in the first game, with starter Cody Trahan (7-4) taking the loss, allowing the three runs on four hits and three walks in four innings.
In 180.2 innings this season, Nelson has 225 strikeouts and opponents are hitting just .158 against her. She has allowed 100 hits – 85 singles and 15 doubles – 30 walks and 13 hit batters and given up 19 runs, only 11 of which have been earned.
In the second game, Brombacher went to 19-0 (and 39-0 during her Florida career) but did not finish the game, yielding the seventh inning to Nelson, who picked up her third save of the year. Brombacher allowed just two hits and three walks while striking out four. The loss went to Brittany Mack (11-3), who allowed five hits and walked four.
Brombacher’s ERA dropped to 0.87. In 136.1 innings this season, she has struck out 166 and the opposition is hitting .162 against her.
Florida’s only run in the game came in the fourth inning with two outs. Bruder singled to lead off the inning and Bush sacrificed her to second base. Hilberth then singled home Bruder for her 17th RBI of the year.
Mack got out of a bases-loaded jam in the first inning, and a nice play by shortstop Santos, who dove for a ball hit by Moultrie and fired home to erase pinch-runner Danyell Hines at the plate, kept the game scoreless in the second.
Nelson struck out the first two batters she faced in the bottom of the seventh and then sealed the Gators’ second straight SEC title by inducing Morgan Russell to hit a grounder to third baseman Brooks.
The Gators and Tigers conclude their series Sunday at 2 p.m. EDT. Florida returns home for its final six games of the regular season – a three-game series with Arkansas next Saturday (doubleheader) and Sunday and a three-game series with Longwood the following weekend.