For a team that lost only five games all season in 2008 and 2009, losing three of its last five could be considered a disappointment.
But as the dust settles from a tumultuous last two weeks, the Florida softball team finds that it still controls its own destiny in the Eastern Division of the Southeastern Conference, and that it is just one slip-up by Alabama away from a shot at the SEC regular-season title.
The No. 6 Gators (35-7, 15-4 SEC) will look to right the ship and return to their winning ways as they travel to Starkville to take on Mississippi State (26-24, 7-15 SEC) in a weekend series starting Saturday at 2 p.m.
The UF offense, which has been scoring at a pace nearly two runs below its season average over the last five games, should have every opportunity to get back on track as they square off against a Mississippi State pitching staff that is second-to-last in the SEC with a 4.20 team ERA.
But, as is the case with every series in the SEC, this weekend will not be a cakewalk.
The UF pitchers will have to try to subdue a Mississippi State offense that is fifth in the league with a .294 batting average and features switch-hitting senior Chelsea Bramlett, who is second nationally with a .536 batting average.
The matchup with Bramlett will be the fourth time this season the Gators face a hitter who is in the NCAA’s top six in batting average, as they faced Georgia Tech’s Jen Yee (.597), Tennessee’s Raven Chavanne (.500), and Alabama’s Kayla Braud (.490) earlier in the season.
These meetings have yielded mixed results for Florida, as Braud went 7 for 10 in her series against UF while Yee and Chavanne went just 1 for 3 and 1 for 5 respectively.
If Chavanne and the No. 16 Lady Volunteers can avoid a sweep in Alabama this weekend, then the Gators will simply need to take care of business against cellar dwellers Mississippi State and South Carolina to finish the season as the conference’s regular-season champions.
