For seven innings two first team All-American pitchers outdueled each other, baffling the opposing team's lineup.
In the bottom of the seventh inning, UF ace Stacey Nelson (47-4) trotted out to the circle to resume her two-hit performance against Virginia Tech in the Women's College World Series.
Erin Ota was 0-for-2 against Nelson to that point in the game, but she got a hold of an inside pitch and pulled it deep to right center field.
Junior centerfielder Kim Waleszonia tracked the ball down with relative ease, then the unthinkable happened - Waleszonia overran the ball.
The yellow, official ASA softball sat against the fence in right field as Ota safely made her way to third on the three base error.
The Hokies (49-19) had a runner 60 feet away from ending the No. 1 Gators' season and three chances to do it.
UF Coach Tim Walton called time, walked out to the circle and had a talk with all the players in the field. When play resumed, the Gators (69-4) intentionally walked the next two batters to load the bases, a decision Walton said was an easy one to make in order to set up the force at home.
"The best player on our team today was Kristina Hilberth," said Walton, who was impressed that his catcher asked about turning a double play on a ground ball. "Kristina having enough guts to ask that question was phenomenal. I'm so proud of her."
Just as Hilberth had anticipated, Tech catcher Kelsey Hoffman hit a hard ground ball at third baseman Corrie Brooks. Brooks fired home to Hilberth who did exactly what her coach ordered and completed the double play.
Nelson got Jessica Everhart to ground out to second base, sucking the life out the Hokies in a game that seemed all but over.
The other All-American in this game was ASA Player of the Year Angela Tincher, who no-hit the USA national team earlier in the season. Going into the top of the ninth inning, she had fanned 17 Gators.
"She was everything we thought she was," senior Mary Ratliff said. "She was dominant."
Only sophomores Francesca Enea and Corrie Brooks were able to keep their strikeout total to one.
The top of the ninth started out no different than the other innings, Tincher sat down Waleszonia and freshman Aja Paculba on strikes. She now had 19 strikeouts, one shy of the single game WCWS record.
Three hitters later, the Gators had loaded the bases and Ratliff, who had two go-ahead grand slams this season, had an opportunity to come up with yet another big hit for UF.
Ratliff had struck out each of her previous three times at-bat, but this time she lined a ball through the infield and into left center for a two RBI double.
"It was a definitely a relief to get a hit and be able to scratch out a run," she said.
Nelson shut the door in the bottom of the inning and the Gators lived to play another game later that night against perennial power UCLA.
A match up with the Bruins proved to be a reprieve from the two emotion filled, extra inning games the Gators had already played in Oklahoma City.
UF scored a run early when Waleszonia scored from second on a throwing error to first base by UCLA pitcher Anjelica Selden and never looked back.
"This is a huge win for our program, a huge win for our players and team," Walton said. "Any time you go against the caliber and the name of UCLA, UCLA and the College World Series go hand-in-hand."
The Gators would add an insurance run in the sixth inning when Francesca Enea drove in pinch runner Le-Nett Franklin from second base. The RBI gave Enea the single season UF record (61), passing Emily Moreno who set the mark in 2000.
Nelson threw her second shutout of the day, this time only needing seven to end the Bruins' season.
Over the 16 innings, she struck out twelve batters and only walked two, not counting the intentional walks in the first game.
With UCLA out of the field and Arizona eliminated earlier in the day, this year marks the first time in 22 years that neither school has reached the finals of the WCWS.
"It is tough when Arizona and UCLA match up in the first round for either of us to get to the championship," Bruins coach Kelly Inouye-Perez.
Despite striking out 43 times in three games, the Gators will take on No. 5 Texas A&M in the semifinals today. UF will need to beat the Aggies twice in order to send home its third first team All-American pitcher in two days - Megan Gibson would join Tincher and Selden if that were to happen.
"It's just a matter of visualizing yourself winning," Nelson said of the task.
This series doesn't come without a history, just a season ago A&M sent UF home from College Station in the final game of a three-game Super Regional series.
"We owe them a little something," Enea said.
