When Kirsti Merritt tried to save her team, she ran into a wall.
And as she traced the ball and saw it leave Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium, reality sunk in.
No matter how fast she ran.
No matter how hard she pushed.
No matter how high she jumped.
Nothing would stop that ball from going over the fence.
She couldn’t help her team. All she could do was walk off the field.
The Gators, after back-to-back national championships, won’t be going back to the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City. Georgia took their tickets.
The Gators lost 3-2 to Georgia on Friday after pinch hitter Kaylee Puailoa took an 0-2 pitch and turned it into a walk-off two-run home run. Florida pitcher Aleshia Ocasio was one strike away from forcing a Game 3 in the Super Regional series, but with the walkoff, No. 16-seed Georgia (45-18) took the series two games to none over No. 1-seed UF (56-7).
When she saw Puailoa make contact with the pitch — a rise ball high over the middle of the plate — the Gators’ senior catcher, Aubree Munro, could only watch.
“That ball was hit pretty well,” she said. “But with Kirsti in centerfield, you know there’s always a chance.
Since the day we got — I’m sorry.”
A tidal wave of emotion overwhelmed her as she paused to wipe her eyes.
“Since the day we got here, Kirsti’s been the player that would go through a wall,” Munro said. “Her literally going through the wall to try and rob that to give our team a chance, really kind of just shows you what Kirsti’s about. And shows you what our team is about.”
The game had three distinct stages: the panic, the peace and the end.
Florida looked nervous in the first two innings. Out of their element down 1-0 in the series, the Gators made mistakes they don’t normally make.
Dropped pop ups.
Botched ground outs.
A second-inning home run put Georgia up 1-0. And there was reason for panic: Six of the Gators’ seven losses came when the opponent scores first.
And offensively, no Gator got on base the until the fourth inning.
“We weren’t comfortable,” Munro said. “We didn’t get to a place where we could be comfortable, really all this series.”
Everything seemed to change in the top of the fifth.
The Gators, deemed the away team, finally got some run support.
Florida had runners on first and third with one out, when Georgia pitcher Chelsea Wilkinson hit Munro on an 0-2 pitch. Wilkinson hit the next batter, Taylore Fuller, and Florida tied the game.
Then, freshman Amanda Lorenz hit an RBI groundout to first base.
When the Gators took the lead, they started to play like themselves.
Ocasio retired the next six Georgia hitters and as the seventh inning came around, Florida was expecting a Game 3.
But Georgia batter Maeve McGuire reached base on a grounder to shortstop when the umpire said first baseman Taylor Schwarz had taken her foot off the bag.
But Florida was still at peace as Ocasio got another out, and Georgia was down to its last hitter.
But with an 0-2 count, one strike away from Game 3, Ocasio hung a pitch over the middle of the plate.
And the pinch hitter made her pay.
The Georgia dugout erupted as they knocked off the two-time defending national champions.
“My whole senior class, (I’m) just really proud of them,” coach Tim Walton said. “Not only what they’ve brought to our program, but what they’ve left behind.”
Munro, with notes of disbelief, congratulated the team that ended her college softball career.
“Hats off to Georgia,” she said. “I mean, who comes up pinch hitting and hits a walkoff home run?”
Contact Matt Brannon mbrannon@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @MattB_727
Kirsti Merritt smiles as she slides into third base during Florida's 2-1 win against North Florida on April 1, 2015, at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium.
