On Wednesday, Kelly Barnhill shut out Winthrop.
She began the game by striking out the side in the first, the second and the third innings.
She struck out the first two batters in the fifth inning, got hit with a line drive, and then struck out the third batter.
And then she struck out the side in the sixth inning.
No. 1 Florida (27-1, 2-1 Southeastern Conference) beat the Winthrop Eagles (10-17) 7-0 in seven innings.
Barnhill notched a career-high 18 strikeouts, setting an individual record for most strikeouts by a Gator pitcher in a game, and gave up only two hits and three walks in a complete game.
"It feels really great," Barnhill said.
"I mean, I could give you every cliche in the book. It just feels really amazing to do it.
"Coming back from any loss — no matter who it is — you have that fire in your stomach. You’re just like, ‘We’re gonna come after this next opponent.’"
While the freshman was impressive in the circle, the Gators started out sputtering offensively.
They scored two in the first inning on ground-ball base hits from freshman Amanda Lorenz and sophomore Kayli Kvistad.
Florida didn’t get on the board again until the fourth inning.
Junior Justine McLean scored from second when Kelsey Stewart hit a looping fly ball to shallow center field.
Stewart scored two batters later when Lorenz hit a hard grounder to the Eagles’ second baseman who bobbled the ball, giving Florida a 4-0 lead.
UF stepped up its hitting in the fifth.
Kvistad kicked off the inning by ripping a double into the right-center gap.
Then, senior Taylore Fuller hit a line drive over the third baseman’s head.
Sophomore Nicole DeWitt drove in the two runners on a double down the right field line.
She scored on a hit by senior catcher Aubree Munro to make the score 7-0.
"She did a good job, a couple more drop balls tonight," coach Tim Walton said.
"The good thing about her is, if she gets ahead in the count it really makes it tough on you, because she does throw so hard."
Contact Matt Brannon at mbrannon@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @MattB_727.
Kelly Barnhill pitches during the second game of UF's doubleheader sweep of Jacksonville on Feb. 27, 2016, at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium.
