The top-ranked Florida Gators softball team is not very familiar with the view from the losing side, but sometimes that perspective helps build a team’s character for the long haul. At the very least, it makes the team realize what it takes to avoid the sting of defeat again.
The Gators saw their 23-game winning streak come to an end in a sloppu 6-4 loss to No. 4 Alabama at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium Sunday. It was only their eighth loss in the last two seasons, dropping their record during that span to 104-8.
“(Alabama’s) a great team,” said senior catcher Kristina Hilberth. “They put pressure on us. They’re going to get us ready for the postseason. So if this happens again, we know how to respond and we can catch it quicker than the bottom of the seventh inning.”
Florida (34-3, 13-1 SEC East) has not lost by more than one run in the last two years, so the Gators were in unfamiliar territory staring down a 6-1 deficit in the bottom of the seventh inning. But coach Tim Walton’s Gators did not go down without a fight. In fact, they thought it was just another obstacle en route to extending their winning streak.
“I definitely thought we were going to win it,” said junior Francesca Enea, whose 10th home run of the season, a 3-run shot, cut the deficit to two runs. “We have such fight as a team. Any time we get behind in a game, I never believe that we’re going to lose.”
Sophomore Aja Paculba, who was 1-3, drew a leadoff walk and sophomore Kelsey Bruder, 2-for-4 in the game, hit a double down the right-field line to give the Gators runners on second and third with no outs. After winning pitcher Kelsi Dunne (13-1) struck out Ali Gardiner, Enea crushed the first pitch she saw over the scoreboard in left to narrow the gap to 6-4.
Senior Corrie Brooks, who had an RBI single in the first to give Florida a 1-0 lead, and sophomore Megan Bush kept the hopes alive, battling through long counts before taking full-count walks to bring the winning run to the plate.
After Dunne got Hilberth with her 13th strikeout of the game, the outcome of the game rested on freshman Michelle Moultrie’s shoulders. Moultrie tried her best, lofting Dunne’s 211th pitch of the game deep to right. But Jazelyn Lunceford, who had a 2-run single off losing pitcher Stacey Nelson (18-3) in Alabama’s 3-run fifth inning, caught the ball a few feet from the fence to end the game.
Though Florida’s seventh-inning rally fell short, the comeback effort showed the Gators what kind of character they possess.
“It gives us a lot of confidence,” Enea said. “To know when we get in this situation when it starts to really matter down the road in the postseason and stuff, we can always remember this game and know how much fight we have in us, and we know that we can do it and take it for a win next time.”
But Florida only has itself to blame for such a huge hole. The Gators’ poor defense gave the Crimson Tide several extra opportunities to put runs on the board. Alabama (27-6, 7-4 SEC) was able to capitalize on Florida’s mistakes, something it never had a chance to do in Saturday’s 9-1, 10-1 doubleheader sweep by the Gators.
The uncharacteristically sloppy play left Walton virtually speechless.
“We didn’t make plays,” Walton said. “We didn’t make plays. We didn’t make plays. We didn’t do a very good job on defense. Ultimately defense wins championships and wins ballgames for you, but we just didn’t make plays.”
Although Florida was only given credit for committing two errors, the scorecard does not tell the entire story.
“We just didn’t play defense like we can and we needed to,” Hilberth said. “I think we had two errors. If you think about the mistakes that we made, there were much more than two mistakes, that’s just what goes down in the books. When you go back and look at the mistakes we made in the game, the No. 1 team in the country can’t make those mistakes. So we’ve got some work to do.”
Senior Stacey Nelson (18-3, 0.46 ERA) struggled a little bit with Alabama’s adjustments at the plate, but the defensive miscues made her performance look worse than it actually was. Nelson gave up five hits and four runs (only one earned) to go along with nine strikeouts in five innings of work.
Sophomore Stephanie Brombacher (16-0, 0.83 ERA) came in to try to stop the bleeding, but gave up two runs of her own in the last two innings. Brombacher struck out four of the nine batters she faced.
Dunne (13-1, 1.40 ERA) redeemed herself after Saturday’s performance, when she gave up nine runs off 12 hits, by getting ahead of Florida’s hitters in the count and using her rise ball more effectively. Dunne gave up six hits and struck out 13 batters.
“(Dunne)’s a great pitcher,” Hilberth said. “We did a good job yesterday. We scored a lot more runs than I think anyone really imagined. But teams swing the bat a little bit different when they’re up than when they’re down. She did a good job mixing us up today, maybe got us behind in the count earlier than she did yesterday. She’s a good pitcher. We just didn’t come out on top today.”
Walton tried to look at the bright side after the game, but it was clear he did not swallow this loss very easily.
“We won the series from Alabama,” Walton said. “So I guess we’ll take that as a positive. I don’t think this team takes losing very lightly, so we’ll figure out why (we lost) when we come to practice Tuesday.”
The Gators will travel to Auburn for a two-game series Wednesday. The first game will start at 5 p.m. Florida returns home for a three-game stand against Mississippi State next weekend. The teams will play a doubleheader starting Saturday at 1 p.m. and the series finale Sunday at 1 p.m.