By Brad Goldbach
Tim Walton, the coach of the second-ranked Florida Gators softball team, hoped he wouldn’t see this day for another season – the day his team would take the field without Kim Waleszonia.
But Florida did just that Sunday as the injured senior center fielder’s name did not grace the lineup sheet for the first time in her collegiate career. Since becoming a Gator in 2006, Waleszonia had started in all of Florida’s 234 games prior to Sunday’s game with Illinois in the Cox Invitational.
The Gators’ makeshift lineup performed well in Waleszonia’s absence, as they defeated Illinois 7-2 and South Florida 9-1 to win the tournament with a 6-0 record.
Waleszonia showed up to cheer on her teammates, making her way to the dugout before the game on crutches and wearing a knee brace under her street clothes. Walton said he didn’t have any new information about Waleszonia’s injury, but hoped to have a prognosis by Tuesday’s press conference.
Walton, who came to Florida the same year as Waleszonia, appointed sophomore Kelsey Bruder to step in for Waleszonia in the two-spot in the lineup. Bruder started the day in center field, before moving back to her usual spot in right field. Freshman Michelle Moultrie spent the rest of the day in center.
“I’m just trying my best to take over what Kim left,” Bruder said. “We’re going to miss her enthusiasm on the field, but I’m sure she’ll make a quick recovery. So we’re just all working together, trying to keep the morale up, and we did a pretty good job today.”
Bruder only responded with a 1-for-7 performance in two games, but she did hit a home run to center field against Illinois. It was her third home run in as many days and brought her season total to four. The performance wasn’t breathtaking, but Walton did not expect anyone to try to fill Waleszonia’s shoes.
“I just told her the same thing I told her before,” Walton said, “‘Don’t do anything different. Just do everything you’ve already done to this point. Don’t change anything. I’m putting you in that spot. You’ve been doing a great job on defense, and offensively I just want you to go up there and contribute like you’ve been doing.’”
Walton also looked for contributions from his freshmen. Along with Moultrie, who went 2-for-3 against USF after only playing the field and pinch-running against Illinois, fellow freshman Alicia Sisco, who was 0-for-3, received her first start of the year against Illinois to help cope with the loss of Waleszonia.
“I wanted to reward (Sisco) for her great at-bats,” Walton said. “She had consecutive pinch hits (this weekend). She had three hits out of four at-bats all season on pinch hits. I wanted to give her a full game, just kind of give her a game to get up there and have some fun with it.”
The rest of Florida’s lineup chipped in to help fill the void left by Waleszonia’s injury. Francesca Enea went 3-for-4 on the day and hit her team-leading seventh home run of the year over the 220-foot mark in center. Kristina Hilberth and Aja Paculba each went 3-for-5 on the day. Hilberth had 2 RBI and Paculba knocked in 3 runs. Megan Bush didn’t record a hit against Illinois, but came back strong with a 2-for-3, 4-RBI performance against South Florida.
Waleszonia’s absence also changed the game plan against Illinois. Florida ran all over the Illini Saturday, racking up six stolen bases in the victory. The Gators didn’t put up the same numbers Sunday, but still stole two bases and pulled off a well-executed suicide squeeze in the fourth inning.
“To me two steals is attacking the bases,” Walton said. “Six steals yesterday was flukier and we had two double steals. I thought with the matchups we had at the plate, we were able to do some things. I felt really good about how we executed. The suicide squeeze was perfect timing coming off the triple (by Kristina Hilberth), and Aja (Paculba) executed it perfectly.”
Sophomore Stephanie Brombacher started the day off against Illinois, but only went 2.2 innings after surrendering the first home run of the season against the Gators and allowing two runs, one earned. It was the second time this weekend she was pulled in favor of Stacey Nelson, who received the win to bring her season record to 9-2.
But Walton went right back to Brombacher for the second game to try to get her back into a groove before conference play.
“She’s too important to what we’re doing here for this year and the next,” Walton said. We’ve got to get her confidence back and make sure she maintains her confidence going into the SEC (schedule). It would have been easy for me to start Stacey and say, “Alright, we’re going to win this game with Stacey.” But that’s not what we need to do. We have to have two (good pitchers) to be successful.”
Brombacher appeared to be in for another rough outing after some bad luck put her in a tough position in the first inning against South Florida. A leadoff single, an error and a hit batter had Brombacher facing bases loaded with no outs. But Brombacher escaped the jam with minimal damage and appeared to regain her confidence, allowing only the first inning unearned run in the contest. The win kept Brombacher’s records immaculate, going to 10-0 on the season and 30-0 for her career.
The Gators (19-2) hope to carry that momentum into South Carolina next weekend. The Gators play the Gamecocks in a double-header Saturday at 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. and on Sunday at 1 p.m.