Although Florida’s bats have been the team’s strong suit all season, hitting alone usually isn’t enough to get the job done against ranked teams.
But it was all the Gators needed Wednesday night.
On a day when the pitchers were average and the fielders struggled, the offense carried No. 3 UF (32-4, 12-2 Southeastern Conference) to a doubleheader sweep of No. 19 FSU (36-10, 8-4 Atlantic Coast Conference) on Wednesday in Tallahassee.
“We swung the bat arguably as well as we swung all year long,” UF coach Tim Walton said. “This offense puts a lot of fear in people, and we score a ton of runs and really swing the bat with authority.”
Despite facing off against a pair of pitchers with ERAs less than 1.50, the Gators’ bats pounded out 17 runs against the Seminoles.
Every player in the starting lineup had a hit in the doubleheader, with six different Gators contributing multiple RBIs.
“We don’t depend on one single person,” said Kelsey Bruder, who had two RBIs. “We have such a strong lineup that at any point anyone can contribute.”
UF wasted little time getting the offensive onslaught started, scoring four runs in the second inning of Game 1 on RBI hits by Ensley Gammel, Brittany Walker and Aja Paculba, who ran her hitting streak to a career-best 16 games. First baseman Megan Bush added a three-run homer in the top of the third to give the Gators a 7-0 lead, and it looked like Game 1 could end by run-rule. But the Seminoles battled back, scoring three in the third and one in the fifth to cut Florida’s lead to three.
The Gators tacked on an insurance run in the sixth, and with two on and one out in the bottom half of the inning, Gammel came in to relieve ace Stephanie Brombacher. She retired five of the last six Seminoles to close out the game, securing UF’s 8-4 win.
“I’ve seen some good things from her,” Walton said. “I’ve been very pleased with the way that things have been working, and hopefully she’ll continue to do good things.”
In Game 2, the Florida bats quickly picked up where they left off, scoring in the top of the first on a fielding error by FSU.
After the Seminoles tied the game in the second, the Gators exploded for four runs on five hits in the top of the third, scoring on an RBI single by Francesca Enea, a sacrifice fly by Bruder and a two-run home run by Brittany Schutte.
Although the Seminoles responded in Game 1 to make it interesting, Gammel kept them at bay in Game 2, allowing just a single additional run in the bottom of the fifth.
Florida put the game away shortly thereafter, scoring four in the top of the sixth on RBI hits from Enea, Bruder and Schutte, plus a sacrifice fly from Paculba to stretch the lead to 9-2, which would eventually become the final.
The only downside to the afternoon was Florida’s fielding.
Five different Gators committed errors Wednesday in the team’s first action since recording five errors in a weekend series against Arkansas.
