Kirsti Merritt stepped to the plate against Creighton’s Brittany Telecky with the Gators on the verge of run-ruling the Bluejays in Friday’s season opener.
Senior Ensley Gammel had already driven in one run on a double and freshman Kelsey Stewart had drawn a walk. Merritt came up next with the bases loaded, and she drove the ball over the left-field fence for her first career homer.
“It was dreamlike,” Merritt said. “It just happened, and as I was running around the bases at full speed, I was like, ‘Oh, I can trot.’”
Merritt was the third Gator to hit a home run against the Bluejays. UF’s power surge against Creighton set the tone for the rest of the weekend. In their next four games, the Gators hit five more homers.
“Success isn’t surprising to me,” coach Tim Walton said. “It was fun watching.”
Stewart showed the most power over the weekend. She hit a three-run bomb against Creighton on Friday and a solo shot against No. 16 Arizona on Sunday.
“I didn’t even think it was going over,” Stewart said of her first home run. “I was just trying to get a triple.”
In addition to her home runs, Stewart also hit two doubles and a triple — the latter coming in her first college at-bat.
“I was super nervous,” Stewart said. “I looked at coach, and he was like, ‘Calm down.’ Then, I hit the triple, and I just relaxed and started playing my game.”
On Monday, the freshman second baseman was named the Southeastern Conference Player of the Week.
Gammel and senior Kelsey Horton also picked up the first home runs of their final season at Florida during the weekend.
Horton’s home run came on a 3-2 count in the opening game against Creighton, and it gave No. 5 Florida (5-0) a lead it would never relinquish.
Gammel’s bomb came during UF’s 14-3 win against Arizona on Sunday.
“It was good (to get my first homer out of the way),” Gammel said. “Especially because it was the first weekend of my senior year.”
Freshman first baseman Taylor Schwarz added two blasts during the weekend. The first was a two-run home run against then-No. 3 California.
“The home run against Cal was a clutch home run,” Walton said. “We needed that.”
Although Schwarz’s batting average is .182 after the first weekend of play, Walton said she would continue to start. He expects her bat to come around.
Schwarz’s second blast started Florida’s six-run seventh inning against Arizona on Sunday. Gammel’s home run followed, but both would be topped by an even bigger blast.
Later in the inning, sophomore Bailey Castro came to the plate with the bases loaded and slammed her first home run of the season — a grand slam.
Florida plays Jacksonville (3-1) on the road tonight at 6. Walton is skeptical of the Gators’ ability to keep scoring via the long ball.
“Jacksonville is a tough place to play,” he said. “You’re down in a valley, so the ball doesn’t carry there very well.”
Senior Ensley Gammel (11) watches a fly ball off her bat during Florida’s 3-2 win against Auburn on April 13, 2012 at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium. Gammel homered in a 14-3 win against Arizona on Sunday at the Kajikawa Classic.
