One run and 13 strikeouts later, the Gators headed back to the video room. It’s time for more adjustments.
Florida (43-8, 20-5 Southeastern Conference) lost its first SEC series this year by dropping the rubber match against Kentucky (26-27, 12-13 SEC) 5-1 on Sunday. It is the first time the Gators lost a three-game series against a conference foe since they last played the Wildcats on April 1-3, 2011 when the Gators were swept.
“Our team can lose to any team in the country (and) can beat any team in the country,” coach Tim Walton said. “That’s called a good pitcher pitching and a team swinging at bad pitches. That was just a good pitcher just flat out dealing.”
Kentucky pitcher Chanda Bell, the all-time leader in strikeouts for the Wildcats, has had the UF’s number and has left the Gators scratching their heads twice in one weekend. On Friday, Bell shut out Florida in seven innings by striking out eight and allowing just four hits.
When the Gators had their second shot against the senior hurler on Sunday, they failed to make the proper adjustments and it showed. Although Florida managed to get three more hits off Bell as well as one additional run, the team still struck out a season-high 13 times.
Junior Kelsey Horton said Bell caught the Gators off balance.
“(Bell) threw a lot of strikes and we didn’t swing at them,” Horton said. “It is frustrating; you make an adjustment as a team and it doesn’t work. We just have to keep making adjustments. They’re adjusting to what we’re doing so we just have to be better than that.”
The closest Florida came to putting a dent in Bell’s armor was in the bottom of the fifth when UF had the bases loaded with no outs and Lauren Haeger at the plate.
The freshman hit a ball to the warning track for a sacrifice fly, a few feet short of a grand slam. The one run would be all the Gators could muster after Kasey Fagan and Cheyenne Coyle struck out and popped out, respectively.
With the sacrifice fly, Florida tied the game going into the sixth. But Haeger, who replaced Hannah Rogers in the circle after four, hit a road block in the sixth against the Wildcats. Kentucky pushed across four runs in the top of the sixth, boosted by a bases-clearing double by Wildcats designated hitter Rachel Riley.
“They got some cheap hits,” Haeger said. “They just fell where they needed to fall. They didn’t really hit me hard and that was probably the worst thing because I made my pitches, they just found holes.”
Haeger said the balls hit softly frustrated her most.
“Hey, if you’re going to hit me hard, hit me hard and I’ll give you my respect and everything,” she said. “But I mean … they just poked the bat out and things happened for them.”
