The Gators entered exclusive territory Friday night. They beat Jackie Traina.
No. 6 Florida pulled out a victory against No. 3 Alabama on the road in Tuscaloosa despite facing the second winningest pitcher in the nation in Traina. Coach Tim Walton pitted fire against fire with an ace of his own up his sleeve.
Sophomore Hannah Rogers outdueled Traina with a complete-game performance. Rogers, who is not too far behind Traina as the eighth winningest hurler in America, was just three outs away from picking up her ninth shutout of the year but still managed to hold the Crimson Tide to one run on three hits.
Through seven, Rogers struck out seven to bring her season total to 178. Rogers’ only mistake was a hanging pitch that Traina drove over the rightfield wall. But Traina’s attempt to get her team back in the game was too little and too late.
Florida jumped out to an early lead thanks to a couple Alabama errors in the first. The Crimson Tide’s Kaila Hunt committed both errors in the first at shortstop which allowed Sami Fagan to make her way home.
The Gators maintained their 1-0 lead into the seventh when they padded it with some insurance runs. Freshman Lauren Haeger added two RBI in the last frame to bring her season total to 45, which leads the team by six.
Florida closed the gap against Alabama as it has now won 24 of its 50 games in the all-time series. The Gators have now won the past three matchups, with the previous two coming in last year’s Women’s College World Series’ semifinals.
The top-two Southeastern Conference foes will continue their final regular-season series on Saturday when they face off at 4 p.m.
