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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Freshman’s walk-off hit catapults Gators to championship series of WCWS

<p>Nicole DeWitt bats during UF's 2-1 win against UNF on April 1, 2015, at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium.</p>

Nicole DeWitt bats during UF's 2-1 win against UNF on April 1, 2015, at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium.

Freshman Nicole DeWitt didn’t get her chance to win the game in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Rather, coach Tim Walton called upon a senior, Briana Little, to pinch-hit for DeWitt with the game-winning run on second base.

It didn’t work as Little flied out to left to send the game into extra innings.

In the bottom of the ninth, DeWitt was re-entered into the game facing the same situation: two outs and a runner on second base representing the winning run.

This time around, the freshman did something the senior couldn’t do earlier.

She got the job done as DeWitt came through in the clutch as she slapped a ball to left field that scored Justine McLean to give Florida (58-6) a 3-2 win in nine innings over Auburn (56-11).

The Garden Grove, California, native’s walk-off single sends the Gators to the championship series of the Women’s College World Series.

DeWitt was 0-for-3 with three fly outs prior to her last at-bat.

“I went to my slap because I was getting under the ball when I was hitting, so I tried to slow it down a little bit, just touch the ball and find a hole,” DeWitt said.

Auburn had plenty of chances to beat Florida and force a second game.

The Tigers outhit the Gators 11-5 and gave pitcher Lauren Haeger her toughest test in the NCAA Tournament so far. Haeger threw 160 pitches on the day, including 28 in the first inning. Coming into the game, Haeger threw 80 pitches in each of her first two starts in the WCWS.

“What a great team (they are). They just grind you,” Walton said of Auburn. “They had some really good dang at-bats today.”

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Haeger didn’t have a single 1-2-3 inning during the game and didn’t have her best stuff. She went to pitching coach Jennifer Rocha and they decided to change their strategy.

“Just give credit to Lauren Haeger. I wanted to pull her probably in the fifth inning and we switched up our game plan,” Walton said. “We changed it up and I thought Lauren just really got better as the game went on.”  

Both teams struggled mightily with runners in scoring position throughout the game, wasting golden opportunities to score runs.

Auburn loaded the bases in the top of the second inning with one out and Emily Carosone up to the plate. Carosone hit the first pitch she saw to Kirsti Merritt in center field and Merritt made the catch and fired the throw home.

The throw was off target, but catcher Aubree Munro caught the ball and made a spectacular tag on Morgan Estell to complete the double play as Haeger and Florida came away from the inning unscathed.

UF would capitalize on their opportunity when the Gators had the bases loaded in the bottom of the third. With Merritt at the plate, Auburn pitcher Lexi Davis uncorked a wild pitch that got away from catcher Carlee Wallace.

Justine McLean made the correct read on the ball from third base and used her speed to slide under Wallace’s tag to give the Gators a 1-0 lead.

“It’s her read all the way,” Walton said. “You gotta be 100 percent on a ball in the dirt, and so she saw the ball down and went as fast as she could.”

The Tigers would again load the bases up in the fourth inning and came away with a clutch hit as Branndi Melero hit a two RBI single to give Auburn a 2-1 lead. It was Florida first deficit in the NCAA Tournament. But it didn’t last long.   

In the bottom half of the inning, Taylore Fuller would tie the game up at two she hit a laser over the left field fence for her 14th home run of the season.

In the bottom of the eighth, the Gators had the bases loaded with one out with freshman Kayli Kvistad at the plate and Francesca Martinez at third.

Kvistad hit a ball to the centerfielder Estell who caught the ball.

Estell came up firing to home plate.

It was the perfect throw and in plenty of time to get Martinez at home to keep the game going, which eventually set up DeWitt’s heroics.   

“The positive side is that we can win ball games like this with our backs against the wall,” Walton said. “Downside is our No. 1 pitcher threw nine innings and threw a ton of pitches today. We’re going to need Aleshia Ocasio and Delanie Gourley to be really huge in the next couple of days.”

A television broadcast contributed to this report.

Follow Luis Torres on Twitter @LFTorresIII

Nicole DeWitt bats during UF's 2-1 win against UNF on April 1, 2015, at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium.

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