When the Gators took to the field Wednesday night for a midweek game against the Seminoles, both teams were hungry for a win.
It had been exactly a week since the Gators tasted victory following three consecutive road losses to Tennessee last week. Florida State, on the other hand, was eager to defend a 13-game winning streak — and it did.
No. 8 FSU (35-4, 12-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) defeated No. 6 UF (31-8, 5-7 Southeastern Conference) 3-2 in eight innings Wednesday night at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium.
For the fourth time this season, the Gators went into extra innings, but it was the first time they ended an eight-inning matchup with a loss.
The last time Florida lost at least four games in a row was in 2011 when it dropped six straight contests from March 25-April 3.
Florida State’s Tiffani Brown, who was walked at the start of the eighth inning, scored the game-winning run for the Seminoles when Maddie O’Brien reached base on a fielder’s choice.
“I don’t think this one had anything to do with the other,” coach Tim Walton said. “This was a good softball game; it could have went either way.”
On Florida’s first at-bat of the game, Kelsey Stewart reached first base on a single, extending her on-base streak to 39 games.
The sophomore shortstop stole second immediately after and then made it home off a right-side hit by Stephanie Tofft that also advanced Chelsea Herndon to third.
A home run from Florida State’s Briana Hamilton in the top at the third inning evened things out at 1-1.
Another home run for Florida State from O’Brien gave the Seminoles their first lead of the game at 2-1 in the top of the fourth inning.
Florida’s last lost against Florida State came in Tallahassee on April 5, 2006.
Since then, UF had won 11 consecutive games against FSU — until the two teams met for the first time this season on Wednesday.
“We’re doing the same thing in this game in games that we’ve won,” Walton said. “We just leave too many runners in scoring position. We’ve got to do a better job of executing our offense.”
Both Florida and Florida State recorded six hits.
In the circle, Lauren Haeger started her eighth game of the season.
The Peoria, Ariz., native pitched the first four innings, allowing four hits, two runs and recording only one strikeout.
“We didn’t play bad. We just can’t get a ball to fall our way,” Haeger said.
“We just have to move on. I mean you can’t think, ‘Oh, we lost four in a row.’ You can’t think of it like that or you’re just going to be out of the game every time.”
After Florida tied things up in the bottom of the fourth with an RBI double that scored Tofft, Delanie Gourley moved into the circle in the top of the fifth inning.
With her four punchouts, Gourley became the first Gator to break the 100-strikeout mark in 2014.
Gourley allowed one hit and no runs in two innings pitched.
“I kind of hit a little minor rough patch but I was feeling good, nice and loose tonight and just going to hope to keep it up,” Gourley said.
Hannah Rogers, who was in the circle for the final two innings, took the loss on Wednesday night after allowing the game-winning run.
“I thought all of our pitchers were good,” Walton said. “If they we’re great we would have won.”
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Left-hander Delanie Gourley pitches during Florida’s 2-0 win against Ole Miss on March 9 at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium.
