After three months and 51 games the UF softball season is just beginning.
When a team starts the season as the No. 3 squad in the nation and the two-time defending Southeastern Conference champion, an opportunity to play in the NCAA Tournament is almost assured.
What matters most is what it does with that opportunity.
The No. 4 Gators (43-8) will begin their quest for a national championship Friday when they take on Bethune-Cookman (32-22) at 6 p.m. in Katie Seashole Pressley Stadium in the first game of an NCAA Regional that also includes UCF (35-21) and FIU (36-19).
This will mark the sixth consecutive year the Gators have hosted an NCAA Regional and the second time they have welcomed Bethune-Cookman and UCF, which both played in the Gainesville Regional in 2005.
“Hosting is a huge advantage,” senior Francesca Enea said. “We’re going to have a ton of fan support, and even though the other schools from Florida will have fans too, the fact that it’s the postseason brings out support for us from the Gainesville community.”
Gainesville’s all-Florida regional features a pair of familiar foes, as the Gators already clashed with both UCF and FIU earlier in the season.
UF’s March 31 showdown against UCF in Orlando turned out to be one of the most dramatic games of the season, as the Knights took a 3-1 lead into the seventh before Enea and freshman Brittany Schutte tied the game with RBI hits to send it in to extra-innings.
Schutte later blasted a home run to center to give the Gators the 4-3 win in the team’s only nine-inning game.
If UCF’s senior ace Ashleigh Cole can match her complete-game performance from the teams’ first meeting, the Gators could be in for another close contest.
But as tough of a matchup as that was, the FIU contest went considerably worse for Florida.
In the first game of what was scheduled to be a doubleheader, the Golden Panthers pounded out 11 hits in an 8-3 victory April 20 in Gainesville.
“I think it’s going to be a tough regional,” Enea said. “Two of them we played this year and with UCF we played tight and FIU ran over us.”
It also appears that UF is catching each of these teams during relative hot streaks, as FIU has won 11 of its last 15, UCF has won eight of its last nine, and Bethune-Cookman has won 10 of its last 11.
Regardless of how these teams have played recently, the Gators know they will get the best their opposition has to offer any time they take on an in-state opponent.
“Florida teams always want to beat us just because we’re UF so we always have to have our guard up,” Enea said.
While their opposition enters the NCAA Tournament on a high note, the Gators enter the Regional coming off their worst loss of the season, a 9-1 trouncing at the hands of No. 11 LSU in the semifinals of the SEC Tournament.
But to this point in the season Florida has shown it is capable of bouncing back after a tough defeat, as the team is 7-0 in games following a loss this season.
“I expect a huge bounceback,” Enea said. “We don’t like to lose, it’s hard to even think about. So we’re coming in with a chip on our shoulder and looking to prove to the country how good this Florida team is.”
