The Gators have struggled to support Hannah Rogers since Southeastern Conference play began.
After pushing just one run across the plate on three hits against Mississippi State on Wednesday, Florida mustered just three hits and went scoreless in Friday’s loss to Tennessee
UF (21-2, 2-1 Southeastern Conference) traveled to Knoxville, Tenn., as part of a five-game road trip to open its conference schedule. Before hitting the road, coach Tim Walton said the Volunteers would be one of the Gators’ most difficult obstacles so far this season. Tennessee (15-3, 1-0 SEC) proved Walton right on Friday.
Sophomore Hannah Rogers (11-1) pitched a nearly flawless game against the Vols, allowing just one unearned run on five hits in 6.2 innings of work.
The sophomore hurler was one strike away from sending the game into extra innings, but the Gators slipped defensively.
With Shelby Burchell on third base with two outs in a 0-0 game, Rogers had Tennessee’s Hannah Akamine in a hole with an 0-2 count.
Akamine hit the next pitch towards junior Ensley Gammel at first base, who committed a costly error.
Gammel mishandled the batted ball, which allowed Akamine to reach first and, more importantly, brought Burchell home to give UT a 1-0 victory.
The loss was the second for UF and Rogers’ first loss after winning her first 11 games.
Florida was shut out for the first time all year. The Volunteers’ Ellen Renfroe kept the Gators guessing at the plate through all seven innings, yielding just three hits while striking out 15.
Renfroe even shut down Kelsey Horton and Michelle Moultrie, holding UF’s homer leader and senior All-American hitless. In fact, every Gator struck out at least once except for Gammel.
Florida will play the second game of its weekend series against Tennessee on Saturday at 2 p.m.
