After his team’s 16-3 loss to UCLA on day one of the Women’s College World Series, Florida coach Tim Walton said rebounding to win a national championship would be “next to impossible.”
Evidently, he knew what he was talking about – but at least his team went down swinging.
Just a few hours after valiantly staving off elimination with a 5-0 victory over No. 9 Missouri (51-12), No. 4 Florida’s (50-10) season officially came to a close Saturday with the team’s 3-2 loss to No. 6 Georgia (50-12).
With the Bulldogs holding onto a 3-2 lead in the top of the sixth, the Gators put runners on second and third with just one out, only to follow with five consecutive swinging strikeouts to end the game and the season.
“The pitcher that came in was throwing a really good game and we just didn’t make the adjustments that we should’ve made,” senior Corrie Brooks said. “I don’t think we really communicated well with each other, like the first person striking out going to the next person.”
These late-inning shortcomings overshadowed the heroic efforts of junior Stephanie Brombacher and freshman Brittany Schutte, who fought their hardest to keep UF’s season alive.
Brombacher had a stellar bounceback performance, allowing just two runs on the day despite having to throw 13 innings and 182 pitches in the sweltering Oklahoma City heat.
“I thought Stephanie really showed a lot of heart today,” Walton said. “She went out there and gutted it out through 13 innings and did a great job.”
On offense, Schutte stepped up and carried the load for Florida.
The freshman went 4 for 6 with three home runs and four RBIs between the two games, extending the freshman records to 19 and 59 respectively.
“That wasn’t a freshman running around the bases out there – just a really good player,” Walton said. “She’s a hard worker and has really developed into a ferocious hitter.”
The Gators also got another big day from junior Kelsey Bruder, who contributed a solo homer in Saturday’s opener and hit .565 with five home runs and 11 RBIs over the course of the NCAA Tournament.
The primary keys to UF’s early win over Missouri were timely pitching and defense, as the Tigers left eight runners on base for the game.
With two on and one out in the first, Missouri’s Ashley Fleming hit a fly ball to right, where Bruder was able to make the catch and throw a tagging runner out at third.
The game was still scoreless in the third, when Missouri loaded the bases only to see Brombacher strike out Fleming to end the threat.
The Tigers’ final challenge came in the fifth when trailing 2-0. They once again put runners on first and second before Nicole Hudson popped out to Brombacher and Fleming grounded out to third to complete the frame.
“The high fly ball that Stephanie caught was probably the biggest play of the game,” Walton said. “That could’ve been a disaster because we don’t work with our pitchers on catching fly balls at all … but she caught it like she’s been doing it her whole life.”
Unfortunately for the Gators, they could not carry that momentum into the nightcap, as Georgia’s Alisa Goler gave her team a 2-0 lead just three batters into the bottom of the first with a home run to right.
Florida battled back as Schutte homered in the fourth and pinch-runner Lauren Heil scored on a wild pitch in the fifth, but Georgia answered in the bottom of the frame with an RBI single from Brianna Hesson that gave them the 3-2 lead that would later become the final.