After falling 1-0 to Baylor on Sunday, UF coach Tim Walton placed all the blame for the loss on his hitters. Wednesday, the Gators showed their true potential at the plate.
The No. 2 UF softball team (3-1) held just a 1-run lead entering the top of the fifth inning of its game at Jacksonville (1-5), the team's first road game of the season. The Gators then blew the game wide open with 10 runs in two innings, including 8 in the sixth on five hits.
"We kind of started off slow, but we finally made adjustments and got everything together and really started producing runs," second baseman Aja Paculba said.
Almost everyone was effective at the plate for UF on Wednesday, as seven different Gators finished the game with at least one RBI, and Paculba led UF by going a perfect 3 for 3 at the plate, driving in 3 runs and scoring twice.
"She's got so many different dimensions to her game," Walton said.
Left fielder Francesca Enea was the only other player to turn in more than one RBI, and she did so on just one hit - a 2-run double with one out during the Gators' explosive sixth inning.
UF started off slow on offense, and Jacksonville maintained a scoreless tie entering the third inning. But when the Gators were backed into a corner, the top of the order came through.
UF had two outs and nobody on base, but Kim Waleszonia dropped a bunt to keep the inning alive. Paculba followed up with a single up the middle, and, after fouling two balls to the same spot in left field, Ali Gardiner knocked a single into the outfield that brought in Waleszonia for the Gators' first run of the game.
The Gators continued their scoring in the top of the fifth - once again with two outs against them. After pinch-runner Danyell Hines moved ahead to third base on back-to-back sacrifices, Paculba knocked the ball deep to left field for a 2-run home run, her second of the year.
Sophomore pitcher Stephanie Brombacher (2-0) shut out the Dolphins, throwing six innings, giving up only two hits, striking out eight batters and walking none.
"It makes pitching a lot easier when I know they're going to put 11 runs on the board," Brombacher said. "I think any pitcher can pitch with that kind of run support."
Redshirt freshman Shaunice Harris, who sat out all but three games last year and the preseason with a torn ACL, saw some time on the field in the sixth inning. Harris grounded out in her first at-bat back with the Gators but ended the game by throwing out Jacksonville's Amanda Schmidt at first.
A radio broadcast contributed to this report.
