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Friday, March 29, 2024

UF's seventh-inning rally falls short in series finale against Alabama

The difference between a tough loss and a series sweep: about 5 feet.

The UF softball team entered the bottom of the seventh Sunday down 6-1 but pulled to within 2 with two runners on. With two outs on the board, freshman Michelle Moultrie's shot to right field fell just short of the warning track and into Jazlyn Lunceford's glove.

Alabama pitcher Kelsi Dunne (13-1, 1.40 ERA), who threw 392 pitches over the weekend, held the Gators to just 1 run going into the bottom of the seventh. The top of the order strung together a few hits and walks to get on base, and Francesca Enea's 3-run homer put UF within striking distance. The bottom of the order couldn't finish the job, though, as catcher Kristina Hilberth struck out and Moultrie's flyout put an end to the comeback.

"I talked about that in the fourth inning that we haven't been in this position before, so let's find a way to answer," UF coach Tim Walton said. "And we'll get a little bit tougher from this, and obviously we didn't win, but I thought we showed some character."

Despite the loss in Game 3, the No. 1 Gators (34-3, 13-1 Southeastern Conference) won their weekend series against the No. 4 Crimson Tide (27-6, 7-4 SEC) with two mercy-rule victories Saturday.

UF struggled on both sides of the ball Sunday, committing two errors and striking out 13 times against Dunne.

"We did a great job in that last inning, but when you go back and look at the mistakes we made in the game - the No. 1 team can't make those kinds of mistakes, so we've got some work to do," Hilberth said.

In addition to the mistakes they made, the Gators also had to deal with several questionable calls by the umpires. During the seventh-inning rally, third baseman Corrie Brooks hit a ball that appeared to have fallen just inside the line, but it was called foul.

A similar situation occurred in the top of the fifth, when Brooks seemingly turned an infield grounder into a triple play, but the ball was ruled foul well after Brooks had made the throw to first for the third out. The Tide went on to score 3 runs in the inning.

"The officiating's not really anything we can control," Hilberth said. "So we just had to work through that adversity and try to become a better team, whether it goes your way or not."

Saturday was a completely different story for both teams.

Dunne, who had her way with the UF lineup for most of Game 3, gave up all 9 runs in UF's 9-1 victory in Game 1 in front of a record crowd of 2,423.

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UF outscored Alabama 19-2 on Saturday, and five of the top six hitters in the Gators' lineup added to their home-run totals.

The Gators' dominant performances even surprised Walton.

"If you had told me we were going to run-rule Alabama two games in a row, I would've been like, 'Yeah right. There's no way. They're too good of a team for that to happen,'" he said. "You've got to give our kids credit. I thought they came out and executed."

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