By Brad Goldbach
A couple of milestones were reached Friday evening as the second ranked Florida Gators mowed down two teams to get the Cox Invitational off to a good start. In beating Pacific 10-5 and South Florida 8-0, Coach Tim Walton earned victories 300 and 301 of his coaching career and with her single in the seventh against Pacific, center fielder Kim Waleszonia moved into first place on Florida’s all-time hit list.
Walton, who has the Gators off to a 15-2 start this season, downplayed his personal achievement.
“It’s just another number,” Walton said. “To win that many games you obviously have to have great players. I’ve just been really fortunate to get, recruit, keep and have good players play for me and play hard for me. The one thing I look at most is how quickly we got to that point. Again, that’s just about the players and how long we’ve gone into the seasons. We’ve been very fortunate.”
Waleszonia’s seventh inning single was the 261st of her career, moving her past Ashley Boone for first all-time on Florida’s career hits list. But the accomplishment didn’t even register on Waleszonia’s radar until it was announced after the game.
“I actually didn’t even know,” Waleszonia said. “I was like, ‘Oh that’s me.’ It’s okay. But I’m looking for the freshmen and sophomores right now to break it, so it’s just the program getting better and they will.”
In game one the Gators got off to a 5-0 start in the first four innings behind home runs by Corrie Brooks and Kelsey Bruder. With Stephanie Brombacher on the mound, this looked like a cruise control win but Pacific rallied to tie the game with five runs in the bottom of the fourth, breaking Brombacher’s string of 43 consecutive scoreless innings.
The Gators were unfazed by the Pacific rally, taking the lead for good when Megan Bush hammered a home run over the left field fence on the first pitch of the fifth inning. Bush went 2-2 in game one and followed that up with a 2-3, two RBI performance in game two.
“[Pacific pitcher Heidi Helberg] had been throwing me the same pitches over and over, and I just told myself that I wasn’t going to let any more go,” Bush said. “I saw the pitch right there and swung as hard as I could. I got lucky, but I felt like I got right on the ball just like I wanted to and it’s fun bringing back the momentum of the game because it got put against us for a while.”
Staked to a one-run lead, Brombacher settled down and gave up only one hit while striking out seven of the last nine she faced over the final three innings. Brombacher, who improved to 8-0, finished the game with 12 strikeouts.
Brooks went 2-5 with two RBI in game one and 1-2 in game two. Bruder was 1-4 with three RBI against Pacific and 1-3 with two RBI against South Florida.
In the nightcap, the Gators struck for four first inning runs and that was all Stacey Nelson needed. Florida’s senior All-American gave up only two hits and struck out 12, the first time she has recorded more than 10 strikeouts since she struck out 10 on May 23 last year against California.
Walton started freshman Michelle Moultrie in left field while giving Francesca Enea a couple of games as the designated hitter. Moultrie responded to the two starts by going 3-7 on the day. Enea went 4-9 with two RBI as the DH.
Walton said using Enea as a DH is a way of getting more production later in the season.
“It’s all about preserving her longevity throughout the season,” Walton said. “It’s a long season … it’s not about what we’re doing tomorrow. It’s about trying to get through the end of the season with her.”
The Gators will return to the field tomorrow for day two of the Cox Invitational, facing Illinois (10-4) at 4 p.m. and Texas Tech (3-10), whom the Gators already defeated 11-0 earlier this season, at 6:15 p.m. The tournament concludes on Sunday, with Florida playing Illinois at 12:15 p.m. and South Florida at 2:30 p.m.