When Hannah Rogers takes the circle, it spells bad news for Arkansas. Unfortunately for the Razorbacks, they face Rogers a lot.
Since coming to Florida in 2011, Rogers has dominated Arkansas in every meeting. Rogers pitched in all three games the No. 3 Gators (31-3, 7-2 Southeastern Conference) played against the Razorbacks (21-13, 0-6 SEC) this weekend.
The Gators played a doubleheader on Friday after Sunday’s scheduled game was moved due to inclement weather in the forecast.
Coach Tim Walton tabbed Rogers to start the first game, and she responded with a run-rule shortened, complete-game shutout. The junior right-hander held Arkansas to four hits in six innings while striking out nine batters.
“From the bullpen, from the very start, I just felt super loose,” Rogers said. “I just felt like the ball was coming off my fingers hard. Everything just felt good.”
For most pitchers, a complete-game shutout would be enough in a day’s work, but Rogers came back out for double duty in Florida’s second game on Friday.
Lauren Haeger started Game 2, and after struggling through the first inning, she tossed four scoreless frames. Rogers came in to relieve the sophomore and put up two scoreless innings, striking out four in the process.
“I didn’t throw very many pitches in the first game, so I think that helped,” Rogers said.
In the series finale, Walton gave Rogers the ball again. Game 3 proved to be the closest game of the series, as Rogers and Razorbacks pitcher Chelsea Cohen each pitched six scoreless innings.
The Gators secured the sweep when senior Kelsey Horton hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the seventh.
Rogers dominated Arkansas in their final meeting during the 2013 regular season. She only surrendered three hits while striking out six batters and walking none.
Before the series, Rogers said Arkansas had great hitters in its lineup. Coming into Friday’s matchup, Arkansas’ leadoff and two-hole hitters Devon Wallace and Stephanie Canfield were hitting .472 and .469, respectively.
The duo managed only two hits in 14 at-bats against Rogers during the weekend. They struck out seven times.
“The key to the weekend was keeping Wallace off base,” Walton said. “In this league, if the leadoff batter gets on base, you’ll see how effective they are at scoring.”
But Rogers dominating the Razorbacks is nothing new for the Gators.
Florida and Arkansas have played nine games since 2011, and Rogers pitched in all of them.
In 2011, she started all three games of the series. On April 9, 2011, she surrendered her only run to the Razorbacks in a complete-game win, notching 12 strikeouts in the process.
In 2012, she pitched a shutout in the opening game of the series and logged eight innings of scoreless relief the next two days, striking out 11 batters.
The past three seasons, Rogers pitched 50 innings against Arkansas and surrendered only one run to compile a 0.14 ERA. In that time, she averaged 7.98 strikeouts per seven innings pitched.
“She’s constantly gotten better with her pitches,” Walton said. “She’s mature, she works hard, she understands her stuff.”
“She loves to compete. I think sometimes when you put a runner on base, she takes it to another level, which all the great ones do.”
Contact Adam Lichtenstein at alichtenstein@alligator.org.
