With her team down 1-0 to Tennessee in the bottom of the fourth inning Sunday, Stacey Nelson stepped out of the UF dugout, energizing the crowd and telling them that the Gators were about to get back into the game.
"This is it!" Nelson screamed to the fans. "We're getting it right here!"
As the senior pitcher promised, the Gators tied the game that inning and pulled ahead with a 3-run fifth inning, taking them to a 4-1 win over the Volunteers in Game 3 of the weekend series. With the victory, No. 1 UF (32-2, 11-0 Southeastern Conference) completed the sweep of No. 6 Tennessee (24-6, 2-3 SEC) in Gainesville.
Nelson (17-2, 0.39 ERA) has primarily led by example during her career - and she continued to do so this weekend by striking out 21 batters and only giving up eight hits in 14 innings - but her mid-game guarantee brought a noticeable change in her leadership tactics.
"I've kind of taken on the role as the pump-up leader, or tried to at least," Nelson said. "It really helps when the crowd is into it and they're cheering as much as the dugout, so I was trying to get them into it."
Nelson had plenty of fans to pump up this weekend, as a season-high crowd showed up at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium on Saturday to watch the two highly ranked SEC squads compete.
With the sweep of the Volunteers, the Gators pushed their win streak to 21 games.
"Anytime you're looking at an opportunity to win a conference championship, you need to take some sweeps," UF coach Tim Walton said. "You've got to beat great teams, and we beat a great team this weekend. I was really proud of the way we played."
After losing 7-0 twice on Saturday, Tennessee made several adjustments before Game 3, and it took UF nearly half the game to catch up. The Gators took advantage of the high number of inside pitches they saw Saturday, but Volunteers pitcher Cat Hosfield went outside and away from them Sunday.
UF made its own adjustments in the fourth inning. With two outs and two strikes on the board, center fielder Michelle Moultrie tied the game at 1 with an infield single that drove in Brooke Johnson. The next inning, the top of the order came through with 3 runs on three straight doubles from Kelsey Bruder, Ali Gardiner and Francesca Enea.
"The whole game, we were trying to make adjustments because Tennessee came out today for Game 3 with a lot better adjustments and pitched us completely different than they did in the two games before," Gardiner said.
The Gators came out on fire in their Saturday doubleheader. Corrie Brooks was the hero at the plate in Game 1, as her third-inning grand slam - her third of the season - put UF ahead 5-0.
With the win in Game 1, Walton became the winningest coach in UF softball history, and he immediately added to his record in the next game. Sophomore Stephanie Brombacher (15-0, 0.67 ERA) held the Volunteers to just two hits in Game 2 while striking out nine batters.
