Kelsey Horton kept promising a run for her pitcher.
Arkansas hurler Chelsea Cohen held Florida scoreless for the first six innings, but Horton was going to get a run for Florida pitcher Hannah Rogers.
But Horton was 0 for 2 at the plate when she came to bat with two outs in the seventh. She fell into a 0-2 count, but she took Cohen’s last pitch of the night over the left-field fence to win the game for No. 3 Florida (31-3, 7-2 Southeastern Conference) 1-0 on Saturday night.
“I just feel really good that it could be me tonight,” Horton said. “It’s been all different people all season, so I’m just happy it could be me right now.”
The Gators struggled with runners on base the entire night, leaving 11 runners stranded on base throughout the game.
In the third inning, Kelsey Stewart tripled to left-center to lead off the inning, and Kirsti Merritt walked and stole second. But with no outs, Lauren Haeger lined out to shortstop. Briana Little popped up to shortstop, and Stephanie Tofft grounded out to end the inning.
Florida had a runner in scoring position in four out of the first six innings, but could not capitalize on any of its chances.
Fortunately for the Gators, Rogers dominated the Razorbacks in her second start of the weekend.
The junior right-hander pitched a complete-game shutout, striking out six while surrendering only three hits.
“I thought Hannah did a really good job,” coach Tim Walton said. “Her stuff was really good this weekend.”
Rogers pitched in all three games against Arkansas. She started the opener and relieved Haeger in game two of the doubleheader on Friday.
The win on Saturday night gives Florida its first sweep in SEC play this season.
“That’s a good team,” Walton said. “They’ve got some good talent on that team, and for us to keep them scoreless quite often pretty much says it all for the way that our pitching staff really competed this weekend.”
Contact Adam Lichtenstein at alichtenstein@alligator.org.
Kelsey Horton connects with a pitch in Florida's 5-2 win against Auburn on April 15, 2012. Horton hit a home run in Florida's 10-4 win against Missouri in the SEC Tournament final on Saturday.
