Junior ace Hannah Rogers (Lake
Wales, Fla.) tossed her third career complete-game one-hitter, sophomore
designated player Lauren Haeger (Peoria, Ariz.) was 2-for-2, knocking in a
career high and school-record tying seven RBI, and freshman Taylore Fuller (Trenton, Fla.) put on a perfect 2-for-2 display as the No.
2 Gator softball squad (54-7) downed No. USF, 11-1, in five
innings to advance to the NCAA Softball Gainesville Regional Championship
Sunday at 1 p.m.
Rogers (5.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 4 BB, 6 K) added her 30th W of the season,
improving to 30-5 in the circle for the Orange and Blue with her third one-hitter
this season.
With Hampton eliminated from the NCAA Tournament after a 3-0 loss to
Georgia Southern in the second game of the day Saturday, the Gators will play
the winner of Saturday evening’s elimination game between Georgia Southern and
USF.
Florida put up three runs in the first, five in the second and three in
the third to rout the Bulls, using five extra-base hits, including a double and
homer each from Haeger and Fuller. Haeger chalked up her team-best 10th game-winning RBI in
the bottom of the first with a three-run shot to left center before roping a bases
loaded – and bases-clearing – double to straight-away center in the
second inning. The second-year Gator was then pegged with a bases-loaded Erica
Nunn offering in the third for her seventh RBI of the tilt. Haeger
is closing in on several Florida single-season records, just shy of the homers
(22) and RBI (80) single-season records with 18 and 70, respectively.
The Gators had the leadoff runner on in each inning Saturday and knocked
two bombs off USF ace Sara Nevins, who had given up just four homers this year
– one of them to Haeger in the February meeting
between the Gators and Bulls.
Two long balls accounted for the Gators’ first four runs against the
Bulls, as Haeger went yard with a three-run shot in
the bottom of the initial stanza to erase a 1-0 USF lead and bring the Orange
and Blue ahead, 3-1. UF’s comeback marked the Gators’
20th come-from-behind of the season and the win over a top-25 team was
Florida’s 15th (15-4, .789).
Fuller knocked her second solo shot in as many days – fourth this
season – over the scoreboard in left center to add to Florida’s lead in
the home half of the second for a 4-1 advantage, and in the same frame, Haeger sent a three-RBI laser to straight-away center for
the 7-1 Florida lead, her 12th double of the season. Senior Kelsey Horton (Valrico, Fla.) kept
Florida rolling, dropping a RBI double in left field for the 8-1 Gator lead
after a five-run, five-hit splurge for UF in the second.
After her solo blast in the second over the Katie Seashole
Pressly Stadium scoreboard, Fuller kicked off the
third with her two-bagger, one of Florida’s nine hits on the day. Freshman Kelsey Stewart (Wichita, Kan.) (2-for-4)
and Horton (2-for-3) joined Haeger and Fuller in the two hits club, while freshman Kirsti Merritt (Lake Panasoffkee,
Fla.) was 1-for-3 on the day for the Orange and Blue to round out UF’s hitting offensive efforts.
UF didn’t back down, lacing the scoreboard with another three spot in
the bottom of the third, first capitalizing on a USF defensive miscue before a Haeger bases-loaded hit-by-pitch and Schwarz bases-loaded
walk plated UF’s final three runs of the contest.
The Bulls lone run in the tilt came unearned in the top of the first, while
a Kenshyra Jackson high bouncer back to Rogers in the
circle in the top of the third counted as USF’s only hit of the game. Nevins
(1.1 IP, 6 H, 7 ER, 0 BB, 2 K) shouldered the loss for the Bulls to move to
26-8 on the season.
