The Gators started the 2012 campaign by mercy ruling
their first two opponents, winning 8-0 in five innings in each
game.
Florida’s latest victim, Maine, recorded just three
hits against freshman Lauren Haeger. Haeger not only chalked up her
first win of the young season, but also of her promising UF
career.
Coach Tim Walton’s new weapon in the pitching circle
confused the Black Bears all game, striking out 11 while only
giving up one walk in five innings of work.
At the plate, Haeger also contributed in the No. 3
spot in the lineup. She went 1-3 with an RBI double and a run.
“It was really nerve-racking and exciting at first,”
Haeger said. “But I settled down and I was starting to feel more
comfortable and [was] getting the jitters out. So it was pretty
good.”
The rest of the Gators also did their share at the
plate as well against the Black Bears.
As a team, Florida went 10-24 including three
doubles, two triples and two home runs. The Gators started their
scoring outburst in the third inning with five consecutive
extra-base hits from the first five hitters in the order resulting
in five runs.
After going scoreless in the fourth, Florida
continued where they left off in the third, scoring the final three
runs of the game to put away Maine.
The two home runs hit by sophomore Cheyenne Coyle and
junior Kelsey Horton electrified the crowd, mostly containing Gator
fans. Horton crushed her two-run homer to deep center in the bottom
of the fifth, an appropriate way to end the game for the Gators who
have collected 16 runs on 19 hits in two games thus far.
This win, although sharing the same score, differed
greatly than the Friday night match against Long Island. The
youthful squad put up three errors in the first game, but came
right back the next day and smoothed out the early season
wrinkles.
“It’s normal,” Walton said. “You get going out the
first weekend, and I don’t want to say you expect little mistakes,
but I just wanted to see how we responded. I was very happy with
the way we responded to those miscues.”
