A total of 2,232 Gator fans, the
sixth-largest crowd in school history, watched the No. 2/3 Florida Gator
softball team (46-6, 15-5 SEC) knot the series with No. 23 Georgia (35-17, 12-8
SEC) Saturday at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium with a 5-2 victory on Senior
Day.
Florida celebrated its two seniors, Ensley
Gammel (Bakersfield, Calif.) and Kelsey Horton (Valrico, Fla.), in a
pregame ceremony before Saturday’s victory as the Orange and Blue improved to
10-4 (.714) against top-25 competition this season with the series-evening win
over the No. 23 Bulldogs.
Working from behind, with a 2-0 deficit after
a Tess Sito two-run double in the second, didn’t faze the Gators as sophomore
starting righty Lauren Haeger (Peoria, Ariz.) delivered a game-winning
three-run jack to left in the fourth to take UF up, 3-2. Gammel finished off
the four-run fourth inning with a RBI double for the 4-2 Florida lead after
four and the Orange and Blue never looked back.
The Gators added a fifth run in the fifth
frame thanks to a junior Stephanie Tofft (Lincoln, Calif.) RBI single up
the middle and Haeger worked out of a minor jam in the top of the seventh with
runners on second and third, one out. Haeger fanned both Katie Browne and pinch
hitter Christine Olney swinging to hold off the Dawgs for the victory.
Florida pounded out seven hits, paced by
Haeger and Tofft at the dish Saturday, who both put up 2-for-3 performances,
while Gammel and freshmen Kelsey Stewart (Wichita, Kan.) and Taylor
Schwarz (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.) all connected for base hits on the afternoon,
as Stewart continued her team-best 10-game hit streak.
The first-year Gator has reached base in all
but three games this season and has had three hit streaks of nine or more games
as she inches closer to UF’s freshman record for hits (75) with 72 so far this
season. For Haeger, the game-winning RBI in the fourth counted as the eighth
game this season she’s knocked in the game-winning runs for the Gators. UF’s
come-from-behind was the 16th of the year for Florida, the fifth in SEC play.
Haeger (7.0 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 9 K) tossed
a complete game, her ninth of the season, and fanned nine Bulldog batters in
the process to improve to 13-2 in the circle for the Gators.
UF faced two Georgia pitchers in Geri Ann
Glasco and Morgan Montemayor, each for three innings, with Glasco shouldering
the loss (17-7). For the first time since April 7, 2012, the Gators didn’t
strike out. Glasco (3.0 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 0 K) gave up UF’s first three
hits, including Haeger’s bomb before Montemayor (3.0 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 0 K) came
in for three innings of relief.
Gammel and Horton have accumulated a career
record of 199-42 (.825) donning the Florida uniform since stepping on campus as
Gators in 2010, including a 77-23 (.770) mark in SEC play. The duo has made two
Women’s College World Series appearances and helped led Florida to the national
runner-up spot in 2011 in Oklahoma City. Horton, a 2013 Senior CLASS Award
Finalist and recipient of a $5K scholarship from the SEC as
part of the Brad Davis Award for community service, and Gammel have both shined
for the Gators on and off the field, in the classroom and in the community,
embodying what it means to be both a student and athlete. Both Kelsey and
Ensley are team captains this year.
