When Florida sophomore second baseman Aja Paculba stepped into the batter’s box in the first inning of Sunday’s first Super Regional softball game against California, the moment the No. 1 Gators have been waiting for all year had finally arrived – their chance to return to the Women’s College World Series.
Paculba’s at-bat against Cal’s right-handed ace Marissa Drewrey unfolded into the type of epic duel that happens in the postseason so often: Pitcher and batter going after one another until one’s will finally prevails over the other.
Paculba fouled off pitch after pitch until the count reached 12, and at that point, the 5-3 mighty mite from Wildomar, Calif., was determined to be the one with the stronger will.
“I was just trying to get on base any way I could,” Paculba said. “As the at-bat was going on longer, I was just like, ‘I am not getting out now after all this.’”
As has been the case for the Gators all season long, Paculba’s will prevailed as she got hold of the 13th pitch and knocked it out of the park, sending Florida on its way to a 2-0, 2-1 sweep of the Golden Bears that punched a return ticket to Oklahoma City for coach Tim Walton’s remarkable team.
“When I hit it, I kind of knew I hit it hard, but I didn’t think it was going to go over,” Paculba added. “I was pretty glad that it went over because I was watching it.”
The gritty battle and eventual home run reminded Walton of another recent battle at the plate that carried the Gators to another important victory.
“What an at-bat!” Walton exclaimed. “Megan (Bush) had that same type of at-bat in the SEC Tournament (against Alabama in the championship game) and hit a home run. That was equally as important of an at-bat. I’m so fired up with the way that kid (Paculba) fought and obviously getting a home run and giving us that momentum when we needed it. That was huge.”
The home run came just one-half inning after senior ace Stacey Nelson had a duel of her own with Cal second baseman Shannon Thomas. The two battled through a nine-pitch at-bat that Nelson ultimately won via strikeout, one of 19 the senior right-hander from Los Alamitos, Calif., had in the two games to improve to 39-3 with a 0.41 ERA. She now has 321 strikeouts in 255.1 innings
The battles set the tone for the rest of the day’s play between the two softball powers meeting for the second straight year with a trip to Oklahoma City on the line. A season ago, the Gators swept a pair of 4-2 victories. This time, their talent, depth and willpower had no match from California (38-20).
The two victories increased Florida’s consecutive-game winning streak to 26 (the Gators have won 49 of their last 50 games) and 60-3 overall heading to Oklahoma City’s ASA Hall of Fame Stadium, where the Gators will play Arizona (46-15) Thursday night at 9 p.m. in the first round of the eight-team, double-elimination tournament.
The Gators added an insurance run for Nelson in the second inning when Bush led off the inning with a single and eventually scored off a wild pitch by Drewrey, who left after four innings of work with flu-like symptoms. Drewrey held the Gators to three hits (Francesca Enea was stranded after a single following Paculba’s first-inning blast) and two runs with three strikeouts.
Her replacement, Valerie Arioto (14-9), seemed to match Nelson pitch-for-pitch the rest of the day, not allowing a hit the rest of the way in the first game. But unfortunately for Arioto and the Golden Bears, Nelson was on top of her game as well, holding Cal to four hits while striking out 13 batters in completing her 31st game and 20th individual shutout.
“(Nelson) steps up her game when she needs to,” said senior catcher Kristina Hilberth. “And she did it again today.”
Walton decided to go with sophomore Stephanie Brombacher in the second game, and the right-hander was solid for two innings, allowing just two hits and an unearned run.
But with Arioto putting together another lights-out performance, it looked like that one run might be enough to force a Game Three on Monday.
That is until Paculba stepped into the batter’s box in the top of the third inning, this time with runners on second and third.
This time, Paculba didn’t need to fight through 13 pitches to come through, instead hitting the second pitch she saw into the gap in left center for a two-run double. The Gators were able to put runners on second and third again after a Hilberth single and stolen base, but Arioto got out of the inning.
When Brombacher gave up a leadoff double to Arioto in the bottom of the third inning, Walton knew he couldn’t take any more chances. He would live or die by riding his ace, Nelson, in relief.
“It’s nothing against Stephanie,” Walton said. “It’s more like, here’s where we’re at. We’ve got a lead. We’re not swinging the bat as well as we need to. This is going to be all we’re going to score maybe. We can’t give up any more runs.”
Walton put his trust in the right place as Nelson struck out the next two batters before inducing an inning-ending groundout. She continued stifling Golden Bear after Golden Bear, only allowing two hits in five innings while striking out six more batters.
And those two hits came in the bottom of the sixth inning. Thomas led off with a single to right and Gina Leomiti singled to center, placing runners at first and second. Nelson worked the count to 1-2 and then induced a grounder back to the mound by Sanoe Kekahuna. Nelson threw to third baseman Corrie Brooks, who stepped on third to erase Thomas and then fired to first to double up Kekahuna. Elia Reid then popped out to Brooks to end the sixth.
“I’m not even an emotional person,” Walton said. “But sometimes it gets me to where I feel it sometimes. I go, ‘Wow.’ I got up and I was fist-pumping after that double play and I got so excited I thought I was going to black out. It was just one of those feelings. You’re so fired up and amped up.”
Nelson, who struck out three to end the first game, zipped through the bottom of the seventh, ending the game by striking out Shannon Houston on a 1-2 pitch.
“Actually in relief today, that’s probably the best (Nelson) has looked all year long,” Walton said. “She usually gives up hits, but she came in and just mowed them down. Really, that was the momentum changer.”
So it’s off to Oklahoma City to complete some unfinished business from a year ago. Last spring, the Gators dropped a heartbreaking, 1-0 decision in nine innings to Texas A&M, which went on to lose the first two games of a best-of-three championship series with Arizona State.
“It’s so exciting,” Nelson said. “It’s tough to get to this point. We know it’s tough. We knew this road wasn’t going to be easy, so to finally be in the College World Series is such a great feeling of accomplishment. But at the same time it’s excitement because we’ve got another tournament to play.”
The Gators and Wildcats are each joined by two of their conference brethren in the WCWS field. Alabama and Georgia join Florida as Southeastern Conference qualifiers, while defending champion Arizona State and Washington join Arizona as Pacific-10 Conference qualifiers. The Big Ten is represented by Michigan, while the Big 12 is represented by Missouri. In other games Sunday, Washington beat Georgia Tech, 7-0, to finish off a two-game sweep of the Atlanta Super Regional. Then Missouri pulled the stunner, getting a walk-off home run in the bottom of the fifth inning to shock second-seed UCLA, 9-1, in the third game of the Los Angeles Super Regional after the Bruins had forced the if-necessary game with an earlier 5-2 victory.
So the table is set but the Florida Gators won’t take anything for granted in their final tournament of the season. There were plenty of times that it came down to a battle of wills between Florida and its opponent on a given day.
More often than not, Florida found the way to win.
That’s a good lucky charm to have in your back pocket.
NCAA DIVISION I SOFTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
SUPER REGIONALS
GAINESVILLE/FLORIDA
At Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium
Saturday, May 23
California at (1) Florida, ppd., rain
Sunday, May 24
(1) Florida 2, California 0 (1st)
(1) Florida, 2, California 1 (2nd); Florida (60-3) qualifies for the Women’s College World Series, California (38-20) eliminated
PALO ALTO, CALIF./STANFORD
At Smith Family Stadium
Thursday, May 21
(8) Stanford 6, (9) Arizona 4
Friday, May 22
(9) Arizona 7, (8) Stanford 3
(9) Arizona 6, (8) Stanford 5; Arizona (46-15) advances to Women’s College World Series; Stanford (48-11) eliminated
ANN ARBOR/MICHIGAN
At Wilpon Softball Complex/Alumni Field
Friday, May 22
(5) Michigan 8, Baylor 1
Saturday, May 23
(5) Michigan 7, Baylor 1; Michigan (46-10) advances to Women’s College World Series, Baylor (40-22) eliminated
TUSCALOOSA/ALABAMA
At Alabama Softball Complex
Friday, May 22
(4) Alabama 9, Jacksonville State 0
Saturday, May 23
(4) Alabama 9, Jacksonville State 0; Alabama (52-9) advances to Women’s College World Series, Jacksonville State (42-17) eliminated
ATLANTA/GEORGIA TECH
At Shirley Clements Mewborn Field
Saturday, May 23
(3) Washington 7, (14) Georgia Tech 1
Sunday, May 24
(3) Washington 7, (14) Georgia Tech 0; Washington (46-11) advances to Women’s College World Series, Georgia Tech (46-15) eliminated
ATHENS/GEORGIA
At UGA Softball Stadium
Thursday, May 21
(6) Georgia 6, (11) Ohio State 4
Friday, May 22
(6) Georgia 7, (11) Ohio State 6; Georgia (44-10) advances to Women’s College World Series; (11) Ohio State (47-11) eliminated
TEMPE/ARIZONA STATE
At Farrington Stadium
Friday, May 22
(10 Arizona State 3, North Dakota State 0
Saturday, May 23
(10) Arizona State 11, North Dakota State 0; Arizona State (46-17) advances to Women’s College World Series, North Dakota State (38-20) eliminated
LOS ANGELES/UCLA
At Easton Stadium
Saturday, May 23
Missouri 2, (2) UCLA 1
Sunday, May 24
(2) UCLA 5, Missouri 2 (1st)
Missouri 9, (2) UCLA 1 (5, 2nd); Missouri (50-10) advances to Women’s College World Series; UCLA (45-11) eliminated
NCAA DIVISION I SOFTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP
WOMEN’S COLLEGE WORLD SERIES
At ASA Hall of Fame Stadium, Oklahoma City, Okla.
Double elimination
BRACKET ONE
Thursday, May 28
Game 1: (6) Georgia (44-10) vs. (3) Washington (46-11), 1 p.m. ET (ESPN)
Game 2: (10) Arizona State (46-17) vs. Missouri (50-10), 3 p.m. ET (ESPN)
Friday, May 29
Game 5: Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser, 7 p.m. ET (ESPN2)
Game 6: Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner, 9 p.m. ET (ESPN2)
Saturday, May 30
Game 9: Game 5 winner vs. Game 6 loser, 7 p.m. ET (ESPN)
Sunday, May 31
Game 11: Game 6 winner vs. Game 9 winner, 1 p.m. ET (ESPN)
Game 13: Game 11 winner vs. Game 11 loser (if necessary), 7 p.m. ET (ESPN)
BRACKET TWO
Thursday, May 28
Game 3: (5) Michigan (46-10) vs. (4) Alabama (52-9), 7 p.m. ET (ESPN)
Game 4: (9) Arizona (46-15) vs. (1) Florida (60-3), 9 p.m. ET (ESPN)
Saturday, May 30
Game 7: Game 3 loser vs. Game 4 loser, Noon ET (ESPN)
Game 8: Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 winner, 2 p.m. ET (ESPN)
Game 10: Game 7 winner vs. Game 7 loser, 9 p.m. ET (ESPN)
Sunday, May 31
Game 12: Game 8 winner vs. Game 10 winner, 3 p.m. ET (ESPN2)
Game 14: Game 12 winner vs. Game 12 loser (if necessary), 9 p.m. ET (ESPN2)
CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
Best-of-three
Monday, June 1
Game 1: Bracket One winner vs. Bracket Two winner, 8 p.m. ET (ESPN2)
Tuesday, June 2
Game 2: Bracket One winner vs. Bracket Two winner, 8 p.m. ET (ESPN2)
Wednesday, June 3
Game 3: Bracket One winner vs. Bracket Two winner (if necessary), 8 p.m. ET (ESPN2)
Teams by conference: Southeastern Conference 3 (Florida, Alabama, Georgia); Pacific-10 Conference 3 (Arizona, Arizona State, Washington); Big 12 Conference 1 (Missouri); Big Ten Conference 1 (Michigan).