The Florida softball team came into the Southeastern Conference tournament on a roll, but Friday it ran into a buzz saw.
Although the No. 5 Gators (43-8, 21-5 Southeastern Conference) started the day on an eight-game win streak in which they outscored opponents by an average 11 runs per game, they got nothing but a taste of their own medicine in Friday’s 9-1 SEC semifinal loss to No. 11 LSU (44-13, 22-8 SEC).
The eight run margin of defeat was Florida’s largest since June 1 of last year, when it fell 8-0 to Washington in Game 1 of the Women’s College World Series final.
“Overall just really not a very good performance,” coach Tim Walton said. “All the way around I didn’t think we played our best. We didn’t pitch as well as we’re capable of and I don’t think we played as well on defense as we needed too.”
The LSU offense struck early and often, scoring twice in the top of the first on a bases loaded walk and an illegal pitch by junior ace Stephanie Brombacher.
The Tigers tallied runs in each of the first four innings, adding to their lead with a solo home run to start the second before batting around in a third inning that saw LSU bring three runs home on a pair of RBI singles and another bases loaded walk.
LSU then stretched the lead to eight in the fourth, scoring first on a two-error play by UF and then later on a single to right.
Junior Megan Bush came through with Florida’s lone run in the bottom of the fourth, hitting her second home run of the tournament on a 1-0 pitch from LSU ace Cody Trahan, who allowed just four hits in her complete-game performance.
Freshman pitcher Erin Schuppert relieved Ensley Gammel with two outs in the fourth and gave up just one run the rest of the way, but the Florida offense never got rolling.
The dominating performance from the Tigers was a shocking turnaround from when the two teams met in the regular season.
At the start of April the Gators swept their three-game home series against LSU by a combined 13-3, making UF a heavy favorite in Friday’s encounter.
But instead, the Tigers were able to exact a measure of revenge and will be moving on to the finals of the SEC tournament while the Gators can only look to NCAA’s.
“I don’t think it’s easy to ever dismiss a loss but you have to,” Walton said. “At this point in time in the season if you sit here and think about this too long, it’ll be a long but short postseason, so we have to do a good job of making sure we rebound and regroup.”
