Special report on the Florida Gators softball team:
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Friday evening No. 4-ranked Florida defeated No. 14 Duke, 9-3, in front of 2,163 fans to close out the opening day of the T-Mobile Tournament at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium. It’s UF’s second Top 25 win of the season.
The Gators (7-0) pounded out 10 hits in tonight’s victory and was led by redshirt-junior Skylar Wallace (2-for-3), senior Cheyenne Lindsey (2-for-4) and freshman Kendra Falby (2-for-4) at the plate. It’s the third time over the last four games that the offense has produced 10 or more hits.
Wallace, a native of Woodstock, Ga., also accounted for four of the nine RBI for the Gators, while Lindsey and fellow senior Charla Echols also accounted for a pair of RBI each.
To start the game, the Blue Devils (5-2) jumped out to an early 2-0 lead on the Gators and freshman right-handed pitcher Lexie Delbrey. With runners on first and second with no outs, Wallace made an incredible leaping grab on a bunt to stifle the building momentum by Duke for a big out.
However, Jameson Kavel later drove in Ana Gold and Kelly Torres with a one out double to center field, but Delbrey bounced back to limit the damage and retired the next two batters via back-to-back popups.
The Florida hitters responded in the home half of the inning and took the lead when it was the Orange and Blue’s turn to bat. Wallace sparked the offense with a solo home run to center field and Lindsey gave UF a 3-2 lead with her two-RBI double to center field.
With the lead in hand headed to the top of the 2nd inning, Delbrey was relieved by NFCA All-American right-hander Elizabeth Hightower. The Monticello, Fla. native took over the game from the circle as she pitched 6.0 innings and limited the Blue Devils to just two hits and one run for the rest of the game.
The Gators offense continued to roll as the team struck for one run in the 2nd, two runs in the 4th and three in the 5th to take the convincing 9-3 victory.
Florida returns to action on day two of the T-Mobile Tournament Saturday with a pair of games against Villanova and Louisville at 11:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. respectively.
Quotes
Head Coach Tim Walton
On how the team is looking early on in the season after defeating its second Top 25 opponent…
“That’s a good softball team. So, I like where we’re at. Every time you put together a schedule you circle a couple dates and this was one of the days I circled on the calendar for a while going ‘Hey it’s going to be a big game on a Friday night’ and sure enough we had a great crowd tonight. I really appreciate everybody coming out and having fun and cheering. We made it really fun in the first inning, but I think overall it was a circled game that I put on the schedule and said ‘Hey this is going to be a kind of see where we’re at kind of a game’ and I think we’re checking all the boxes right now.”
Skylar Wallace
On the offenses’ momentum after her home run in the first…
“I think that was the start of it. I mean just finding one person to spark our lineup is key and once we find that spark it just rolls from there, so just getting that hit was huge just to show that like hey even though they jumped on us first we can jump back.”
On improvement since being at Florida…
“Gaining confidence from Coach Thomas on my hitting, because I kind of grew up being a slapper and relying on my speed and then coming to Florida he’s always said “You can hit the ball and you can be a triple threat.” So being able to bunt, slap, hit and just perfect all of those and use those tools whenever I need to so that if there are five people in the infield I can do something different. So just kind of fine tuning all of those things.”
Notables:
* Tonight was the first ever meeting between the Gators and the Blue Devils.
* UF also improved to 347-261 all-time against NFCA Top 25 teams and 305-172 against teams ranked inside the USA Softball Top 25.
* Skylar Wallace accounted for four RBI in tonight’s win and belted her first home run as a Gator in the bottom of the 1st inning to spark the offense.
* Wallace stole one base tonight, which gives her six on the season.
* The team has now stolen a base in every game this year so far.
* Wallace and Falby each extended their hit streaks to seven games, while Lindsey extended her streak out to six games.
* Wallace, Falby and Hannah Adams have reached base safely in every game so far this season.