(SB) Ongoing UF Softball Commentary

UF softball escaped the opening game of their series at Texas A&M Friday night with a 3-2 comeback win. Elizabeth Hightower (7-0) threw a complete game 3 hitter, giving up only 1 earned run, walking 3 with 8 K's. A&M got an unearned run in the 2nd inning on a 2 out throwing error from Charla Echols. They added another run in the 3rd on a single and double. The Gators only had 2 hits going to the 6th, but got 1-out back to back walks to Skylar Wallace & Echols. Reagan Walsh doubled off the wall to drive home Wallace. Cheyenne Lindsey flew out to LF and both runners tagged up. Echols trotted home instead of hustling and Walsh was thrown out at 3rd before Echols tagged home, negating the tying run. In the 7th inning, Emily Wilkie slapped a 1 out single, then Kendra Falby got a 2-out single, and Hannah Adams got a bunt single to load the bases. Wallace then singled up the middle to drive in 2 runs and give the Gators their margin of victory. UF had 6 hits on the game and 6 walks, but hit into 4 double plays and left 7 runners stranded, plus committed 2 errors. But they got an SEC road win.

 

UF softball dropped to 24-3, 3-2 in the SEC, getting dominated by Texas A&M pitcher Makinzy Herzog, an FSU transfer, 5-0. She struck out 15 Gators, giving up only 1 walk and 3 hits, one by catcher Same Roe and 2 by LF Katie Kistler. Natalie Lugo only went 2 inning for Florida, giving up 2 walks, a single and a 2-out grand slam HR in the 1st inning. Lexie Delbrey pitched the next 2 innings, giving up only 1 hit, no walks and 2 K's. Rylee Trlicek threw the last 2 innings, giving up a run on 2 hits and a walk.

My observations after a great pre-conference run and 5 SEC games is that Charla Echols, to a great degree, and Hannah Adams, to a somewhat lesser degree, are not hitting at the level we are used to seeing, especially in clutch situations and the younger players except for Kistler are really struggling with SEC- quality pitching. I know it's early in the SEC schedule, but our first 2 series have been against lower tier SEC teams and we haven't looked much better than them. Got to pick it up if they want to have the type of team most everybody expected.

 

Gator softball won the rubber game of their series at Texas A&M Sunday with an 11-3 6 inning run rule win, improving to 25-3, 4-2 in the SEC. Elizabeth Hightower wasn't great, giving up 3 runs on 8 hits, 3 walks and 4 K's, but she improved to 8-0 as the ace of our staff. The top 4 in UF's batting order was only 1-13 with 3 walks, but the bottom half came up big, going 10-18. Cheyenne Lindsey was 3-4 with a double and 3-run HR, Reagan Walsh was 2-4 with a 3-run HR, Avery Goelz went 2-4 and Sam Roe went 2-4 with 2 RBI.
Charla Echols continues to struggle at the plate and had a base runner mistake today and Kendra Falby had a really bad weekend at the plate from her leadoff spot. The Gators play a home & Home with Stetson Tuesday and Wednesday, then host Tennessee this weekend.

 

Oklahoma is the team to beat, IMO. It's going to take a great pitching effort to shut down their offense.

 

Agree. Hightower's bread and butter pitch is the screwball that dives down and in to a righty. That's why there are so many foul balls down the 3rd base side. She has a rise ball and curve, but neither are great. She's been working on a change-up for 2 years and when she' got it under control she's an excellent pitcher like she was Friday night. But when it goes in the dirt or way out of the strike zone like it was much of yesterday, she has a hard time getting strikeouts. SEC teams have seen her screwball now for 3 years and unless she's got her other 3 pitches working well, especially the change, she's going to struggle. She's worked hard, battles and is getting the most out of her ability. I totally agree that we need Delbrey to mature quickly if we're going to beat the top tier teams down the road.

 

Tuesday night's softball game @ Stetson at 6 pm is only being televised on ESPN+, maybe. The WatchESPN app doesn't show the game being televised in any format, but the Stetson softball schedule shows it on ESPN+. The same teams play Wednesday in Gainesville at 6 pm, weather permitting, televised on SEC+. Stetson is 12-18 and the only ranked team they've played so far, USF, beat them 8-0 and 1-0.