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Thursday, March 28, 2024

The Road Less Traveled: UF softball hoping to repeat as national champions

<p><span>Florida softball players celebrate on the field of Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium following their 1-0 win over Kentucky </span><span class="aBn"><span class="aQJ">on Sunday</span></span><span> to advance to their seventh Women’s College World Series in eight years.</span></p>

Florida softball players celebrate on the field of Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium following their 1-0 win over Kentucky on Sunday to advance to their seventh Women’s College World Series in eight years.

As Tim Walton stood at the lectern at the Women’s Club on Jan. 26 for the first time this year to address the media, he said the 2015 Florida softball team had one goal, and it wasn’t to repeat as champions.

Rather, it was to strive to be one team.

And as the season has progressed, the team has done exactly what Walton envisioned them doing.

They came together and won the 2015 regular season Southeastern Conference title and clinched a berth back to the Women’s College World Series.

The Gators are going back to Oklahoma City for the seventh time in eight seasons, and back to ASA Hall of Fame Stadium, where Florida won its first national title in program history last season.

Starting today, UF begins its quest to win its second straight title, hoping to become just the third school to ever accomplish the feat. The Gators entered this season as the No. 1 ranked team and with the proverbial target on their back.

But Walton and the team didn’t listen to the outside chatter heading into the season, because it didn’t matter in the preseason.

"The most important ranking is the one at the end," Walton said on Jan. 26. "It doesn’t matter exactly how we start or really how things go for us. It’s just a matter of how we can find out how to finish strong and put together another great run at the end."

• • •

It’s June 3, 2014, and the Florida softball team just captured the national title riding the arm of senior pitcher Hannah Rogers.

Despite her strong play, Walton said he didn’t consider Rogers the ace of the staff during Florida’s run to the title, even though she was seemingly unhittable when she trotted out to the circle.

She went 7-0 with seven complete games and a miniscule 0.64 ERA in the NCAA Tournament.

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Rogers caught fire at the right time for the Gators heading into postseason play, and the 2015 Florida softball team has a pitcher who’s been on fire the entire season: Lauren Haeger.

Haeger, who was named the 2015 USA Softball National Collegiate Player of the Year on Tuesday, is 28-1 on the season, and has been especially tough on opponents so far in the postseason. The Peoria, Arizona, native is 4-0 and has an ERA of zero with four complete game shutouts so far in NCAA play.

"Just like Hannah last year, when a pitcher gets on fire, just stay out of her way," Walton said. "And Lauren is on fire. She’s pitched very well with the exception of one bad pitch with two strikes against Tennessee, she’s pitched really well this entire postseason."

Haeger has carried the Gators this season, much in the same way Rogers carried Florida through its postseason run last year.

Walton said he can see comparisons between the two as they’ve pitched the Gators to Oklahoma City.

"The shutouts are what’s noticeable to me, just being able to be very hard to score runs on," Walton said. "I think there’s a very strong similarity to the two. The key is that they both gained off-speed pitches later in their career. That’s such an overlooked pitch."

But for Haeger and the rest of the team, their relationship with Rogers runs deeper than softball pitches and statistics.

"I miss Hannah a lot," Haeger said. "Everyone does and she’s one of our good friends, so I talk to Hannah all the time."

• • •

Haeger, Schwarz

Senior pitcher Lauren Haeger (left) celebrates with junior first baseman Taylor Schwarz following UF's 1-0 win against FAU to win the Gainesville Regional on May 17, 2015 at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium.

When Rogers left, a void was left behind. Haeger has taken the role as the leader and has relished it.

For one, Haeger is the lone upperclassman on the pitching staff, joined by sophomore Delanie Gourley and freshman Aleshia Ocasio.

While Gourley and Ocasio have struggled at different points during the season, Haeger has gotten stronger throughout the year.

Ocasio leaned on Haeger early in the season, seeking her advice and picking her brain.

"She’s helped me pitching here, and gotten me through my freshman year so far and just worked with me and helped me develop my pitches," Ocasio said on Feb. 21. "She’s been a leader to me. She’s helped me get through challenges and just helped me develop as a player."

Even though the two others look up to her as a role model on the softball field, Haeger doesn’t put herself on a higher pedestal than them.

"I’ve looked at them as my little sisters in a way, but I would never put them under me," Haeger said. "I just like to treat everyone the same, whether you’re a freshman or not."

Rogers and Haeger helped one another, and a friendship off the field blossomed.

"Hannah has been in that position before," Haeger said. "We learned from each other. She never once treated me like I was her second pitcher. She was still like my friend and that’s what made it so awesome."

• • •

When comparing the 2014 team to this year’s team, it’s easy to see why the Gators are back in the WCWS.

Florida lost just two seniors from last year’s squad in Rogers and third baseman Stephanie Tofft, who hit .356 last season.

But this year’s team is different in more ways than one.

It’s noticeably older, with six seniors on the roster. But the team has also been able to lean on its freshmen at times, who have responded by coming up huge under pressure.

And, perhaps most importantly, the Gators have acquired an invaluable trait as the season has progressed: Walton’s trust.

"I really trust our team, out of everything that I’ve learned," Walton said. "We can have a dialog and we can communicate with each other. There’s no egos involved and I just think it’s just a big strong trust."

This year’s team has also seen the emergence of some players that were unheralded before this year.

Taylore Fuller has been the go-to choice at third base, and although she hasn’t provided the batting average that Tofft had, the junior has provided more power as she’s cranked out 13 home runs compared to Tofft’s eleven.

Bailey Castro has become a consistent threat at the plate. She came into the season a career .245 hitter with 20 home runs in three seasons.

But the outfielder and designated player has exploded in her senior year, hitting a team-leading 17 home runs while posting a respectable .312 batting average.

Junior Kelsey Stewart has another year of experience under her belt, and has continued her assault on the UF record books. She’ll be entering the WCWS with a .448 batting average.

And then there are the freshmen that have made an impact.

Ocasio has been the No. 2 option on the staff over the past couple of months and she’s compiled a 17-3 record with a 1.99 ERA. She’s also taken the role Gourley had last year as the reliable freshman in the circle.

In the batter’s box, Nicole DeWitt has bounced back after a slow start to the season.

The freshman seemed to lose steam in the middle of the season as she was hitting .262. But the Garden Grove, California, fought through the slump and then some as she’s now third on the team with a .351 average.

"For our freshmen, I’m proud of them. They get an opportunity to go to the World Series," Walton said. "When we were getting National Championship rings they were all looking, they were like ‘it’s really not mine, even though I’m part of this program.’"

• • •

With those high hopes, one would think that Walton and the team might be feeling the pressure to repeat as champions.

Walton disagrees.

"(The) target’s off, we got new T-shirts coming now," Walton said. "We’re done with the target. The target was to get to this point."

Whatever the team accomplished during the regular season is out the door. The 55-6 record doesn’t matter anymore, and neither does the SEC title.

"Last year we went in there and we were 0-0," Walton said.

"It really doesn’t matter what you’ve done or accomplished or anything. It doesn’t matter who you’re facing. … Everything we do after this point, it’s gravy. This is what all of these kids have grown up wanting to do is get to the World Series."

The road to a repeat begins today, as the Gators will face one of the four other SEC teams in the WCWS: the Tennessee Volunteers.

Florida has lost four in a row to Tennessee, including its only matchup this year in the semifinals of the SEC tournament on May 8.

UF will be hoping to snap that streak at noon on ESPN.

Walton has seen his team grow since the beginning of the season. He has one final message for them now that they’ve reached this point: Enjoy the moment.

"We’ve handled the pressure," he said. "Now it’s time to go out and have fun and figure out who we are and what we’re going to do moving forward in postseason."

Follow Luis Torres on Twitter @LFTorresIII

Florida softball players celebrate on the field of Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium following their 1-0 win over Kentucky on Sunday to advance to their seventh Women’s College World Series in eight years.

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