Saturday’s
Florida softball game was all about Gator senior All-American centerfielder Michelle
Moultrie (Jacksonville, Fla.) as the Orange and Blue evened the series with
Kentucky (25-27, 11-13 SEC), blanking the Wildcats, 5-0, at Katie Seashole
Pressly Stadium on Senior Day. Moultrie and her family were honored in a
pre-game ceremony, before mother, Cynthia, threw out Saturday’s first pitch in
front of an Orange and Blue-clad crowd that donned No. 16 stickers for UF’s
lone senior.
In
fitting Senior Day fashion, Moultrie blasted a solo shot, her team-leading 10th
homer of the season, to right center in her first at-bat of the contest to give
No. 2 Florida (43-7, 20-4 SEC) a lead it wouldn’t relinquish. Freshman Bailey
Castro (Pembroke Pines, Fla.) followed up with a two-run jack that took the
Orange and Blue up, 3-0, after the first stanza.
As
she’s done so many times, Moultrie led the Gators Saturday with a 2-for-4
performance at the plate, with two RBI and one run scored for UF, while freshman
Katie Medina (Downey, Calif.) added two hits, a run and RBI to Florida’s
tally for the sixth multiple-hit game of her inaugural campaign donning a Gator
uniform. As a team, Florida collaborated for eight hits to UK’s five as UF put
up runs early in the first (3), second (1) and third (1) innings.
With
its 20th shutout of the season following Saturday’s win, Florida also added its
20th conference victory of the year, marking UF’s fifth-consecutive 20-win
record in SEC play, all under seventh-year head coach Tim Walton, the
sixth 20+ win league record in Florida history, as UF’s 1998 SEC Champion squad
went 23-5.
The
Orange and Blue enter Sunday’s series finale with Kentucky tied atop the SEC
Standings with No. 3/4 Alabama as the Gators and Crimson Tide both boast a 20-4
conference record.
Moultrie,
a top-10 finalist for the 2012 Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award and USA Softball’s
Player of the Year Award, added her second hit and RBI of the day in the second
frame for the 4-0 Florida advantage before Medina poked a RBI single through
the right side in the third inning to score junior Kelsey Horton (Valrico,
Fla.) from second for UF’s fifth run of the afternoon after Horton roped her
eighth double of the season.
Freshman
righty Lauren Haeger (Peoria, Ariz.) put together a five-hit shutout in
the circle for the victory, going the distance for the10th time this season to
improve to 13-3 on the year. Haeger fanned seven with no walks to chalk up her
fifth shutout of the campaign. Ellen Weaver started the game in the circle for
the Wildcats, giving up both homers to Moultrie and Castro before Rachel Riley
came on in relief for the final 5.0. Weaver (2-6) shouldered the loss after
walking one and giving up UF’s first three runs on the Gators’ two first-inning
hits. Riley rallied for four strikeouts, but surrendered six Florida hits and
one earned run to finish out the game for UK
After
2.5 shutout innings in the fourth and fifth, Medina struck again in the bottom
of the sixth with a one-out double off the wall in deep left center that initially
looked like it might clear the fence, while classmate Jess Damico (Gray
Summit, Mo.) followed up with a hit-by-pitch for runners on first and second
with one out. A Moultrie groundout advanced both Medina and Damico into scoring
position for a Gator threat, but a groundout retired the side, leaving just
three outs left for the Florida win in the top of the seventh.
Haeger
rallied to force a foul out to junior Sam Holle (Tampa, Fla.) at first
base before fanning Krystal Smith swinging for the second out. It was then that
Moultrie had her final bow on Senior Day, making a grand exit in front of a standing
ovation of 1,092 Gator fans at KSP before the final out of the game, as Haeger
rung up Emily Gaines in dramatic swinging fashion for Moultrie’s Senior Day
victory.
For
the second day in a row, senior leadoff Brittany Cervantes led the Wildcats at
the dish with a 2-for-3 effort.
UF
and UK will clash in the series finale Sunday, with first pitch set for noon, as
the Orange and Blue go for the series win.
