With an offense as powerful as Florida’s, it only takes an inning for a game to go from pitcher’s duel to run-rule.
In a game that was shaping up to be UF’s closest contest in weeks, the No. 5 Gators (43-7, 21-4 Southeastern Conference) scored eight in the bottom of the fifth to turn a defensive struggle with Auburn (30-24, 11-18 SEC) into a 9-1 run-rule victory in the first round of the SEC Tournament Thursday in Fayetteville, Ark.
The win is Florida’s eighth straight, and the Gators have outscored their opponents by a combined 91-3 in that span.
“We’re just feeling good and playing good,” freshman Kelsey Horton said. “Everyone’s got the right spirit and we’re just having a great time.”
Although it was a dominating performance on paper, for the first four and a half innings the outcome was very much in doubt.
Auburn got on the board first when Kyndall White hit a home run to left in the top of the first, thus snapping UF ace Stephanie Brombacher’s streak of 31.1 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run.
But from there Brombacher would allow just one more hit, striking out six in her complete-game one-run performance.
“She did a really good job changing up her locations and changing up her sequences and was pretty tough to hit throughout,” coach Tim Walton said.
The Gators nearly knotted the score up at one in the bottom of the second after Tiffany DeFelice doubled to left and Corrie Brooks followed with a single up the middle, but DeFelice was thrown out on a close play at the plate and Auburn maintained the lead.
But Florida would not be denied in the third, as Kelsey Horton singled to start the inning, moved to second on an error, took third on a sacrifice bunt by Aja Paculba, and then scored on a groundout by Michelle Moultrie to tie the game at one.
With the score still tied in the bottom of the fifth, the Florida bats finally came to life.
Freshman Brittany Schutte gave UF its first lead with a sacrifice fly to center before junior Megan Bush stepped to the plate and broke the game open with a three-run home run to left.
After Auburn made its second pitching change of the day, Brooks singled in Kelsey Bruder to extend the lead to five before Horton delivered her second consecutive run-rule clinching home run, this time belting a 2-2 pitch to right to secure the 9-1 win.
“There were two strikes so I was just battling,” Horton said. “I got a nice outside pitch which is my favorite pitch and hit it good.”
It seemed as though Auburn wanted to keep Florida hitters off balance by giving them as many different looks as possible from the circle, and at first the strategy seemed to be working as Jenn Loree held the Gators to just a single run in her two-plus innings of work before Anna Thompson followed with two scoreless of her own.
But when the UF hitters got to see Thompson a second time they were able to put it together, tagging her for four unearned runs in just five batters the second time through the order.
The performance was very reminiscent of the first time the Gators faced Thompson -- in the second game of a March 14 doubleheader -- where Thompson no-hit the Gators over the first 4.2 innings before surrendering four runs in the span of just one out.
