Most of Mount St. Mary’s pitcher Nicole Pagano’s pitches fooled Florida's batters.
The junior threw 192 pitches Friday evening en route to walking eight batters and striking out 14. The deep counts drove her pitch count well into the triple digits.
“She’s going to feel that a little bit,” coach Tim Walton said.
But when Pagano wasn’t missing the Gators’ bats and the strike zone, Florida was driving in runs with clutch hits.
Six of the Gators’ eight runs came with two outs as No. 4 Florida (19-1) defeated Mount St. Marys (0-7) 8-2 at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium on Friday.
After Pagano set down the first five Gators who came to bat, the Florida offense came to life. Singles from Taylore Fuller and Taylor Schwarz and a walk to shortstop Katie Medina loaded the bases.
Catcher Aubree Munro hit a groundball to the Mount St. Mary’s shortstop, who threw the ball wildly. Two runs scored on the play, and two more would score on a single by Kelsey Stewart and a wild pitch.
But as the Florida offense continued to put up runs, pitcher Alyssa Bache matched Pagano strikeout-for-strikeout.
The sophomore put up 12 punch outs on Friday, the most by any Gators hurler in 2013.
“I was just trying to get outs, and they had big swings,” Bache said.
But Florida had big swings, too. Stewart and senior Kelsey Horton both struck out three times, and third baseman Stephanie Tofft and Munro both struck out twice.
“My timing was off,” Stewart said. “I was being too long with my follow-through.”
The Gators didn’t have as much trouble making contact in their first game on Sunday, but the final result was much closer.
Sophomore Lauren Haeger took the circle for Florida against the Bulldogs. She started off spotty, allowing a run in the second inning on a long home run by pitcher Rebekah Schmidt.
But the sophomore right-hander settled down through the middle innings, and Florida jumped out to a 4-1 lead.
But in the top of the seventh, shortstop Amy Pierce sent a Haeger delivery over the center-field fence, bringing Drake within a run of tying the game.
“I just knew I had to get the next two outs,” Haeger said. “There wasn’t much pressure.”
Haeger struck out the next batter. Zeah Peterson came up as a pinch hitter, trying to keep the game alive for the Bulldogs. She put a jolt into a fly ball, but freshman Kirsti Merritt tracked it down in center field, sealing the first of two wins for the Gators.
Florida faces Drake and Florida A&M on Saturday at noon and 2:15 p.m., respectively.
Sophomore Alyssa Bache pitches in the Florida Lipton Invitational. Bache surrendered six runs in four innings of work against Ole Miss on Sunday.
