If Hannah Rogers could take two pitches back, the Gators would not be on the verge of elimination from the NCAA Tournament.
But they are.
Coach Tim Walton and his No. 7 Florida team (46-12) enters the losers’ bracket of the NCAA Regional round after dropping yet another game to an in-state school; this time around, the defeat came by the hands of Florida Gulf Coast (38-22).
When Rogers faced the Eagles on Feb. 12, she dominated in a complete-game, three-hit shutout. Although the Gators’ sophomore starter tossed her 24th complete game of the season, she made two crucial mistakes in the second and sixth that the Gators could not come back from.
“They came out wanting to beat us,” Rogers said. “Both teams fought.”
Rogers surrendered her ninth and tenth home runs of the season, both solo shots, which was all FGCU needed for the 2-1 victory. The Gators dropped their first ever game to the Eagles after winning the previous three matchups.
Even with the return of 2011 All-American Brittany Schutte, who was out for over two months with a broken jaw, Florida could not muster up enough offense. Schutte went 0-for-2 with a strikeout and the rest of the team did not fair that much better.
“I think it’s all about personnel sometimes,” Walton said. “You just got to have the right personnel up at the right times in certain situations and if you don’t, hopefully you can feed off each other. Confidence is something you either have or you don’t have and if you don’t have it then you hope to develop it through your career.”
Entering the game, the Gators were 6-11 after letting their opponents score first. And although a Lauren Haeger RBI single in the third was good enough to tie the game, Florida could not provide enough at the plate for a victory in the end.
The Gators totaled five hits, two of which came by the bat of Haeger, and stranded six runners throughout the game. Florida threatened with Kelsey Horton on third and Briana Little at the plate with two outs in the fourth, but Little could not take advantage and grounded out to end the inning.
“I told (the team) from day one, the team that gets the hits with runners in scoring position is going to score and they are also going to get the ‘W’,” Walton said. “And obviously we weren’t able to execute. That was the difference in the ballgame.”
And in the seventh, Florida went three-up and three-down on just three pitches.
In the postgame press conference, FGCU’s Kirsten Bembnowski, who hit the first Eagles’ home run on the day, was astonished at the outcome.
“I never thought we would be ahead of the Gators – the Florida Gators,” she said.
The 2-1 defeat to the Eagles wasn’t the only loss for the Gators on Friday though.
Just before the game, sources indicated that freshman Sami Fagan and sophomores Kasey Fagan and Cheyenne Coyle were not going to be suited up for the game.
In the postgame press conference, Walton announced that all three players were off the team for the rest of the season. Walton did not reveal a reason why this decision was made or why the decision was made at this time.
“It was something I handled and that I handled as well as I could and as well I am capable of handling it,” Walton said. “I’d be crazy to say (the decision) didn’t affect the team. Any kind of departure of any person on this team . . . is a distraction, no question.”
Sami Fagan, the team’s leader in batting average (.378), hits (71) and at bats (188), was just recently named to the Southeastern Conference’s All-Tournament team and had been named SEC Freshman of the Week twice earlier this season.
