Lauren Haeger has been seen as a mentor by the younger pitchers on Florida’s staff this season.
Haeger is the lone upperclassmen on the staff and she’s also the only one who has ever pitched against a South Carolina team.
Aleshia Ocasio and Delanie Gourley might be leaning on the senior for more advice this weekend when No. 3 Florida (33-4, 5-4 Southeastern Conference) takes on South Carolina (26-12, 2-7 SEC) in a three game series beginning today at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium.
It will be the first time since 2012 that the teams have played in Gainesville.
Haeger, however, has made only two appearances in the circle against the Gamecocks.
The first was in 2012 when she pitched five innings and got the win. The other was in 2013 when she pitched four innings and got a no decision.
But Haeger has only gotten better in the circle as her career has gone along and her spotless record of 15-0 this year reflects her progress as a pitcher.
Haeger has logged a lot of innings recently and coach Tim Walton doesn’t want to burn her out with a lot of the season left to be played.
“We just don’t feel like we want to push her to the limit this early in the season,” Walton said. “Going Sunday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday, those kinds of things. So now we got a decision to make whether or not she can go again on Friday, or throw her the first game of the doubleheader on Saturday.”
South Carolina was swept by Texas A&M in its most recent SEC series, dropping all three games by a combined 12-7 score, but have since won its last five games by an overall 39-14 score. Two of those five games were run-rule victories.
The Gamecocks have one of the top hitters in the conference in Alaynie Page, who is ninth in the SEC in batting average with a .438 clip. Page is also fourth in slugging percentage (.869) and third in hits (57).
As a team, South Carolina is hitting .298 which ranks 10th in the conference and right behind Florida’s .303 batting clip.
Walton though feels that the Gamecocks have the potential to do some damage at the plate this weekend and the team has noticed what they’ve done.
“I think we’re going to see a good offense, they’ve been swinging the bat well. Good offensive team. Right handed, left handed, got enough speed,” Walton said. “A good team, they beat Tennessee two out of three.
“We’ve just been kind of paying attention to what South Carolina doing, knowing they’re coming up this weekend.”
In the circle, South Carolina has Nickie Blue, who ranks second in the conference with a 1.06 ERA. The sophomore will be joined by redshirt senior Julie Sarratt, who has previously pitched against the Gators in her career.
“I think we’re going to see a lot of the same kind of pitcher,” Walton said. “Sarratt is good and has done well against us. I think it’s Nickie Blue…right handed pitcher, sophomore throws pretty hard and firm.”
After winning its last two SEC series, Walton wants Florida to keep it simple and keep playing its brand of softball.
“All in all, we just got to go out and do what we’re capable of doing and keep playing ball,” he said.
Follow Luis Torres on Twitter @LFTorresIII
Lauren Haeger pitches during UF's win against UNF on April 1 at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium.
