Briana Little stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth inning. Florida’s potential 10th straight victory against rival Florida State was on the line.
Little watched two pitches go by before launching a 1-1 offering over the Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium scoreboard to win the game 7-3 for No. 3 Florida (32-3, 7-2 Southeastern Conference) in front of a record crowd of 2,443. The homer was Little’s sixth of the season and her third career grand slam.
“I saw it off the bat, and I sprinted,” Little said. “Usually you trot; I just sprinted. I was so excited.”
Little’s trip around the diamond wasn’t planned. Extra innings were unexpected.
The Gators had trouble getting the bat on the ball for the first seven innings. Florida only plated one run through the first six innings, and it came on a passed ball. When UF did get runners on base, batters could do nothing against FSU starter Lacey Waldrop’s off-speed pitches.
Florida loaded the bases in the sixth after Kelsey Horton reached base on a throwing error by Florida State third baseman Courtney Senas. Stephanie Tofft walked and Taylor Schwarz was hit by a pitch, but Ensley Gammel and Bailey Castro both struck out to end the inning and Florida’s momentum.
Freshmen Kelsey Stewart and Kirsti Merritt went down in short order to begin the seventh, and it looked like the Gators winning streak would come to an end. Haeger and Little drew walks, bringing Horton to the plate.
Horton hit a weak ground ball to Senas at third base. Senas took a step towards first and fired the ball over first baseman Victoria East’s head. Haeger and Little both came around to score, tying the game in improbable fashion.
“(I was) just trying to hustle to first,” Horton said. “Obviously, that’s not what I want to do. … (I’m) happy it worked out the way it did.”
The Gators loaded the bases later in the inning, but catcher Aubree Munro struck out to end the seventh, setting the stage for Little to win the game in extras.
“They looked like a bunch of piranhas in the dugout,” coach Tim Walton said. “They were ready to attack. And you could see that we got an opportunity, and they were ready to take full advantage of that.”
“Even though the score is 7-3, we all know that’s probably a 1-1 tie ballgame. Both teams had a couple of miscues.”
Before Little’s grand slam, all of Florida’s runs were unearned as pitchers Hannah Rogers and Waldrop dueled. Waldrop struck out 18 Gators in 6.2 innings.
Before the error on Senas in the seventh inning, Waldrop had allowed only six balls to enter play.
“She took advantage of some of us with some of her pitches,” Walton said. “That was more great pitching than bad at-bats.”
The win was Florida’s second straight walk-off victory and fifth of the season. Three of the game-winning hits were home runs.
“We always fight,” Little said. “We don’t sit down and let it just happen. We’re going to go out with a fight, no matter what.”
Contact Adam Lichtenstein at alichtenstein@alligator.org.
Junior Hannah Rogers pitches during Florida’s 7-3 win against FSU on March 27 at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium. Rogers struck out 11 in her complete-game victory against Longwood on Saturday.
