Lauren Haeger was five outs away from softball immortality.
The Peoria, Arizona native was cruising along after retiring the first 16 Kentucky Wildcat hitters that stepped up to the plate.
But in the top of the sixth inning with one out, Kara Howard ended Haeger’s bid for a perfect game with a single to left field.
Florida, however, ultimately got the most important result of the day as the No. 1 seeded Gators (54-6) beat Kentucky (33-25) 7-0 in the first game of the Gainesville Super Regional.
“Lauren set the tone really well. (She) Pitched well, especially to their better hitters,” coach Tim Walton said. “I really thought she did a good job changing locations and (being) really unpredictable.”
Haeger surrendered just two hits in the game and is now 3-0 in the postseason, allowing zero runs and striking out 19 in 22 innings of work. On the season she’s 27-1 with a 1.29 ERA.
This was the third time Haeger faced off against Kentucky pitcher Kelsey Nunley and all three times Haeger has won the matchup by pitching a shutout.
“They’re a good hitting team, so I feel like I have to buckle down each inning,” Haeger said. “I take it inning by inning, I don’t think of like the whole game at once and I think that helps my mentality.”
The Gators scored four runs in the bottom of the first inning with freshman Kayli Kvistad providing the big hit. Kvistad hit a ball to right field that was misplayed by Kentucky outfielder Breanne Ray as the ball went over her head.
The result was a three-run double for Kvistad who had been struggling at the plate over the past month.
“I just want to help my team out in any way and I was just looking for a pitch to hit just to kind of keep my team going,” Kvistad said.
Kvistad’s double came two pitches after she grounded a ball off of her foot that the Kentucky infielders thought was fair, but the home plate umpire ruled it foul.
“This is softball and at the highest level I think players are so fast now that I think the game happens so quickly,” Kentucky coach Rachel Lawson said. “Umpires just see what they want to see and in their mind it hit her (Kvistad) leg.”
After Kvistad’s hit, Nunley retired 10 hitters in a row before being replaced in the circle by Meagan Prince in the bottom of the fifth inning.
“I thought Nunley did a great job shutting them down after the first inning,” Lawson said.
After the first inning, Florida wouldn’t get another hit until Haeger hit a solo home run to lead off the bottom of the sixth inning. Her home run ended a string of 13 consecutive UF hitters who were retired.
Kirsti Merritt would follow Haeger’s solo shot with a two-run home run two batters later.
UF is now one win away from going back to Oklahoma City for the Women’s College World Series. Florida and Kentucky will do battle again tomorrow with the first of two possible games starting at noon on ESPN.
Follow Luis Torres on Twitter @LFTorresIII
UF players celebrate with Lauren Haeger after she hits a solo home run during Florida's 7-0 win against Kentucky during the 2015 NCAA Super Regionals on May 23, 2015, at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium.
