Florida’s pitching is dominant – so dominant, that even UF’s own hitters will tell you that they hate facing the Gators’ trio of pitchers in practice.
"Oh my gosh it sucks," said senior outfielder Bailey Castro. "Nobody ever wants to hit in scrimmages. It’s always like, ‘Ugh, who’s team am I on? Who do I have to hit off of today?’ It’s a big joke."
Castro, who is tied for the team lead with three home runs and is hitting a respectable .385, is no slouch – but UF’s hurlers seem to have her and opposing hitters figured out quite well as the team is off to an 11-0 start.
In 65 innings of work this year, Florida’s pitching staff – consisting of Lauren Haeger, Delanie Gourley and Aleshia Ocasio – has struck out a whopping 108 batters – nearly two per inning – and has held opponents to a mere .132 batting average.
Haeger, who leads the staff with a 5-0 record and a 0.00 ERA, was named Southeastern Conference Pitcher of the Week after striking out 24 batters in 15 shutout innings, while earning three wins during the impressive stretch last week.
Even more impressive is that the staff has given up only three earned runs in 11 games.
To put that in perspective, last year’s pitching staff, which carried the team to a national championship, gave up four total earned runs in its first two games of the season against South Florida and Illinois State.
If Castro’s words weren’t enough to show how unhittable Florida’s staff is, take All-American Kelsey Stewart’s word for it.
"It’s not fun to hit off them in scrimmages at all, especially because they know our weaknesses" Stewart said. "They [will] keep throwing my pitch and I’m just like, ‘really?’"
Stewart’s .408 career batting average is the best in program history of players with at least 200 at-bats. The junior out of Wichita, Kansas, also set the program single-season school record with 102 hits last year.
Stewart said she’s been impressed with this year’s pitching staff and thinks they’ve commanded their pitches better than last year’s pitchers.
"I can really tell they’re hitting spots because people aren’t hitting them," Stewart said. "So it’s really nice to see that they’re getting in there and getting their work in."
So how has the staff been so successful this season?
Coach Tim Walton said after Saturday’s doubleheader sweep of N.C. State and Iowa that one pitch has a lot to do with it.
"All of our pitchers are throwing rise balls," Walton said, "and those balls go out of the ballpark if you miss, but you look at the strikeouts that we’re getting too – we’re getting a ton of strikeouts because they all feature a really good rise ball."
When UF pitchers have missed their locations with their rise balls, teams have left the yard – all three earned runs allowed have been on solo home runs – two of which were hit off Ocasio.
Walton said that’s one thing he’d like to see the freshman improve on.
"I think at times she tries a little bit too hard, especially closing out games," Walton said. "[We] put her in some tough situations – you gotta find out what they can do – and she’s done well but has not been flawless in those appearances yet. I think she’s slowly shut the door but she hasn’t slammed it shut yet."
After every strikeout Florida records, the pitcher and catcher meet to celebrate. Junior catcher Aubree Munro, who has caught each of the pitchers, said she won’t get tired of doing this despite the number of strikeouts the staff racks up.
"That’s the best part," Munro said. "They kind of each have their own trademark thing that they like to do."
Follow Patrick Pinak on Twitter @pinakk12
The Gators began their championship run with a bang after Delanie Gourley no-hit the Rattlers in the opening game of the NCAA Regionals.
In a shortened five-inning contest (UF run ruled FAMU 8-0), Gourley struck out seven and only surrendered one walk.
She recorded Florida’s 15th no-hitter in program history and the first ever during the postseason.
