Florida’s stay at the Southeastern Conference Softball Tournament
was short and bitter.
The
No. 3-seed Gators (47-9, 21-8 SEC) lost to No. 7-seed Auburn
(39-16, 16-13 SEC) 6-2 Thursday on a drab afternoon at the Ole Miss
Softball Complex.
The
Gators spent less than 24 hours in Oxford, Miss, as Auburn’s win
ended UF’s 13-game winning streak over the Tigers. Florida had not
lost to its SEC West rival since April 15, 2007. The Gators
eliminated the Tigers from the SEC Tournament’s first round in 2009
and 2010.
“We
came in here to win it, and we’re going home 0-1,” head coach Tim
Walton said. “Either the coaching staff or the players didn’t
prepare enough to be as good as they were.”
The
Tigers controlled the game from the beginning. Before Stephanie
Brombacher (17-2) could record her second out of the contest,
Auburn led 3-0 on RBI singles by Lauren Guzman and Kelley
Smiley.
A
hit batsman and a Kasey Fagan error set up two of Auburn’s
runs.
Brombacher was pulled after just one inning, and the senior ace was
noticeably upset in the dugout.
“When you’ve got two No. 1 pitchers in your dugout, you’ve got to
switch gears and change directions,” Walton said.
UF’s typically dynamic offense didn’t make matters any more
comfortable for Hannah Rogers, who held strong for three innings.
But in the fifth, the freshman allowed back-to-back RBI singles
to Guzman and Smiley, putting the game firmly out of reach.
In
the last matchup between the Gators and Tigers on April 17, Florida
hit a school-record eight home runs and outscored Auburn by 25 runs
during the three game series.
But
on Thursday, the pivotal Nos. 1-5 slots in the UF lineup went a
combined 2 for 15 with four strikeouts against the lefty-pitching
duo of Jenee Loree and Angel Bunner (15-6).
Megan Bush extended her hitless slide to six games, and Michelle
Moultrie and Kelsey Bruder each struck out twice. It was only
Moultrie’s third two-strikeout game of the season and Bruder’s
first since Feb. 26.
“We
weren’t able to elevate a lot of their balls,” Walton said. “I
think we only hit one or two fly balls, so they obviously were
doing a good job with their lower pitches.”
Florida’s Nos. 6-9 slots were able to account for four hits and two
RBIs, but eight-hole hitter Kelsey Horton killed two potential
rallies with inning-ending double play groundouts.
The
sophomore had yet to ground into a double play in 143 career
at-bats before Wednesday.
“Sometimes maybe we were trying a little too hard to get on and not
just taking it one pitch at a time,” shortstop Cheyenne Coyle
said.
