OKLAHOMA CITY – Supposedly the third time is the charm.
If that adage holds true, Florida could return to Gainesville as softball’s national champion.
After reaching the Women’s College World Series and falling just short of a title in 2008 and 2009, the No. 4 Gators (48-8) will begin their quest to turn their third consecutive trip to Oklahoma City into an NCAA championship when they take on No. 5 UCLA (45-11) today at 3:30 p.m.
The 2008 WCWS semifinal loss to Texas A&M and the 2009 WCWS final loss to Washington have proven to be a motivational force for all of this season’s juniors and seniors.
“I think we all kind of had that taste still in our mouth from last year and that’s my driving factor,” junior ace Stephanie Brombacher said. “I want to get back there and just show people that we’re back and we can do this and we and coach (Tim) Walton have built a great program here.”
Florida’s previous trips to the WCWS provide much more than inspiration, as they have also supplied UF with an experience level few schools can match.
The team’s seven upperclassmen will be making their third trip to the WCWS, while Walton will be making his sixth after making three consecutive trips as an assistant with the University of Oklahoma.
“The first year here was very different,” Walton said. “It was difficult to adjust to everything that was going on but you live and learn and you just adjust as you go.”
And while past experience can be very helpful in handling the immense pressure, huge crowds and media frenzy, there are also a number of benefits that directly affect how the game is played on the diamond.
Walton specifically recalls that the field played very hard in previous years, and that the weather and the stadium structure sometimes combined to turn a routine fly ball into an adventure.
“I know the sun in right field is brutal,” Walton said. “We’ve been practicing turning the outfielders around in funny positions in practice some days and throwing balls straight into the sun and saying to them, ‘Listen, you gotta find a way to find the ball because at the College World Series this is how it is.’”
The Gators will get their first opportunity to put this experience to use today in what will likely be a slugfest against the Bruins.
Both schools are offensive powerhouses, as Florida ranks third in the NCAA in team batting average at .335 while UCLA is fourth at .333.
In addition, each school has shown it can also hit for power, as Florida ranks third in the nation with 1.88 home runs per game and UCLA is fifth with 1.68 per contest.
Without question, UCLA’s biggest threat is senior Megan Langenfeld, who was a finalist for the USA Softball National Collegiate Player of the Year Award.
At the plate, Langenfled is second in the nation with a 1.018 slugging percentage, and she is 11-1 with a 1.25 ERA when she pitches.
The Gators are no strangers to big-time hitters, as they will have faced five of the nation’s top six in batting average after their matchup with Langenfeld (.500).
To this point in the season, they have held Georgia Tech’s Jen Yee (.568), Mississippi State’s Chelsea Bramlett (.536), Alabama’s Kayla Braud (.505) and Tennessee’s Raven Chavanne (.482) to a combined .458 average.
