At 6 a.m. Sunday morning Karolyn Nelson felt a tug on her shoulder. Waking up this early was not on her agenda but when she opened her eyes, she saw her daughter standing over her, urging her to go get some Starbucks. Four hours until the first pitch of game one of an NCAA Super Regional doubleheader and Karolyn Nelson already knew the California Golden Bears were in for a long day. When Stacey Nelson is wired and on edge, that can only spell trouble for the bad guys.
“When she’s got that look in her eye … you just know,” said Karolyn Nelson, who’s been bunking with her daughter ever since the Florida Gators celebrated Senior Weekend against Longwood what seems an eternity ago. After four years of criss-crossing the country from her home in California to watch Stacey pitch wherever the Gators are playing, Karolyn elected this year to stay with Stacey from Senior Weekend through the tournaments. Except for a brief hiatus to Knoxville for the SEC Tournament, where the number one-ranked Gators chewed up and spit out the rest of the conference in a four-day exercise of domination and carnage, Gainesville has been her temporary home as the Gators ran roughshod through an NCAA regional field last week and Sunday when they disposed of California in two games to win the Super Regional, punching their ticket to the Women’s College World Series.
The next step on the journey for the 60-3 Florida Gators is Oklahoma City where they will face Arizona Thursday night in game one of the Women’s College World Series. This is the second straight year the Gators have made the trip to Oklahoma City and this year they’re heavy favorites to win a national championship largely because Stacey Nelson has had that look in her eye ever since last June.
If you’re a Gator, you’ve seen that look before. Tim Tebow got it during football season after the Ole Miss game and for the next 10 games he did whatever he had to do to will the Gators to the national championship. Stacey Nelson didn’t make a public Tebow-like promise after the Gators finished third in Oklahoma City last year, but she did vow to make that journey to the nation’s heartland once again.
“As a senior I think she probably feels a responsibility to the other girls on the team to get them out there to Oklahoma one more time,” Karolyn Nelson said.
The Gators earned the trip to Oklahoma City with 2-0 and 2-1 wins over Cal in a doubleheader that began at 10 a.m. Sunday but before the two wins that clinched the Super Regional championship there was the matter of Scrabble.
“I go into the locker room before the game and she’s kicking butts in Scrabble,” Florida coach Walton said. “Are you kidding me? Scrabble before the biggest game?”
Yes, Scrabble.
“I kind of pride myself on Scrabble a little bit but I almost got beat today,” Nelson said.
Maybe she almost lost at Scrabble, but she wasn’t about to get beat once the focus turned to softball. In game one, Nelson pitched a four-hit shutout, relying on a seldom-used change-up to get the bulk of her 13 strikeouts for her 20th shutout of the season. She began game two on the bench watching as Stephanie Brombacher gave up an unearned run in the first inning and hit in the second.
The Gators scored twice to take the lead in the top of the third but when Valerie Arioto led off Cal’s half of the inning with a high, curving double into the left center gap, Walton trusted his insincts which told him if Florida was going to preserve the lead and win this game, Stacey Nelson was gong to have to pick up where she left off in game one.
Walton’s gut instinct proved true because as good as she was in game one, Nelson might have been even better in the final five innings of game two. She faced 16 batters, gave up a pair of singles and stuck out six, throwing 43 strikes among her 55 pitches.
Maybe the best way to describe it is to say Stacey Nelson was downright nasty.
“Actually in relief today that was probably the best she’s looked all year long,” Walton said. “She came in and mowed them down and really that was the momentum changer and that’s why I brought her in the game.”
With the exception of the sixth inning, the Bears were bound and gagged by Nelson’s collection of screwballs, drops and change-ups. In the sixth, she gave up back-to-back singles to lead off the inning and that brought Sanoe Kekahuna to the plate, Cal’s best power hitter with 11 home runs on the season.
It was at that moment that California cool Stacey Nelson had the first psychic moment in her entire life. “A little flash” is what she called it.
“I had a feeling that I was going to get a ground ball like at my chest and throw it to third and then throw it to first,” Nelson said.
That’s exactly what happened. Kekahuna’s one-bouncer back to Nelson turned into a pitcher to third to first double play that was like a fungo bat to the kneecaps of the Bears. Back in command with two outs in the bank, Nelson got a pop fly to Corrie Brooks at third to end the inning and snuff out whatever hopes Cal had of extending the series to a third and deciding game.
Nelson finished off the Bears in the seventh, inducing a pair of harmless grounders before getting the third out on a swinging third strike to end the game and start a celebration that included a team dog pile halfway between the pitcher’s circle and home plate.
Now earning a trip to the Women’s College World Series is worth a dog pile and some dancing. It’s not something that happens every day and it is the kind of memory you hold close to your heart for a lifetime. But Sunday afternoon the celebration had a rather subdued tone to it and it ended rather abruptly, almost as if the Gators were collectively thinking that the only thing they want to celebrate is an NCAA championship.
When Nelson walked off the field after the trophy presentation, she realized a chapter of her life had just ended. She had just played her final game at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium, ending the Gainesville portion of a softball journey that began four years ago.
Heading to the tent to talk to the media, she took a moment to reflect on four years of accomplishments that include 134 career wins (fourth best total in NCAA history) and a 39-3 record (0.41 ERA) this year. Walking with Walton, she gave him a hug and asked a question.
“She said, ‘Four years ago did you know we’d be going back to our second College World Series?’ and I said four years ago I didn’t know you’d be this good,” Walton said with a grin.
She is that good. This team is that good.
Five wins in Oklahoma City and the journey Stacey Nelson began when she arrived in Gainesville four years ago comes to an end. The only way the journey will seem complete is to win Florida’s first ever national championship in softball.
She thought about what’s ahead in Oklahoma City and forced a smile.
“I love this team and I don’t want it to end,” Nelson said. “I don’t want it to end without a national championship.”