By Matt Brannon
Sports Writer
Aleshia Ocasio is all business in the pitcher’s circle.
She rarely shows emotion on the field, except for one especially memorable moment.
Ocasio’s defining display came on the other side of the diamond, one of the 30 at-bats she took in her sophomore season.
On May 4, in the bottom of the 12th inning against Florida State, FSU pitcher Jessica Burroughs made the mistake of leaving a pitch high over the middle of the plate.
Ocasio swung, and when she connected, her head snapped to the sky as she traced the seamed yellow ball soaring over the right-field fence.
The stoic sophomore, if only for a moment, raised her arms in ecstasy when she realized the ball had left the stadium.
“I was shocked that that ball went out,” she said.
“I was running hard out of the box because I wasn’t sure if it would get out of the park, but I’m glad it did. It was a great team win.”
Ocasio closed her sophomore season with the worst case scenario for a pitcher.
Florida’s season ended abruptly in the Super Regionals when a Georgia pinch hitter took an Ocasio rise ball out of the park for a walkoff home run.
But as the Bulldogs piled on home plate, she didn’t broadcast a despondent demeanor. She knew that she’d be back in 2017 as arguably the best pitcher in the nation with the biggest role on the team.
Aleshia Ocasio has the potential to be a dominant two-way star in college softball, like Lauren Haeger, the Gator great who wrapped up her collegiate career in 2015 as the only softball player ever to win 70 games in the circle and hit 70 home runs.
Ocasio will likely never be the long-bomb dropper that Haeger was, but she’s becoming a bigger part of Florida’s offense.
“I look forward to the day when she’s actually going to hit and pitch and maybe even play some defense for us, too, because that’s the kind of kid I think she can be,” coach Tim Walton said.
Ocasio hit, pitched and played shortstop for Harmony High School in St. Cloud, Florida.
In her junior season, she hit .507 and led her team in runs scored.
In the first game of her senior season, she hit two home runs and threw a no-hitter.
She finished her fourth year leading the team in batting average, RBIs, runs and extra base hits.
But Florida needed her to pitch.
So she did.
She pitched her way to finishing the 2016 regular season with the nation’s best ERA and a 22-1 record.
“I used to hit a lot,” she said in March.
”Coming in here and playing (another) role is definitely different, but I’m embracing it.”
The two-way experiment got off to a slow start in 2015.
Ocasio saw limited time in the batter’s box and hit just .212 in 33 at-bats.
But she made noticeable improvements over the course of her sophomore season.
She doesn’t have enough at-bats to qualify for statistics, but if she could, she’d have the highest batting average on the team, hitting .433 at 13-30.
The most memorable of those 13 hits was the May 4 walkoff home run.
“It’s fun,” she said about hitting. “It’s a little nerve-racking. When I get opportunities, I try to make the most of them. So it’s just fun to be on the other side of it.”
Walton’s always hinted that he has high expectations for how versatile Ocasio can be.
“We haven’t even seen how good she can be yet,” Walton said. “She’s still a work in progress and a great work in progress.
“We’re gonna be able to see her hitting home runs and throwing shutouts."
By the end of the 2016 season, Ocasio was being called on to pinch hit late in close games.
And in the final game of her sophomore season, the upset loss to Georgia that cost the Gators their opportunity to three-peat, Ocasio scored Florida’s first run to tie the game 1-1.
She created her own run support.
Ocasio might be a staple in the Gators’ lineup next season.
The departure of senior Kelsey Stewart, UF’s leadoff hitter and starting shortstop, will leave big cleats to fill.
Ocasio will begin her junior season next year, and Florida is anticipating a future where Ocasio does it all.
A future for UF where its best player will hit a home run then strikeout the side.
A chance for Aleshia Ocasio to become a softball superstar.
Contact Matt Brannon at mbrannon@alligator.org or follow him on Twitter at @MattB_727.
Aleshia Ocasio pitches in the first game of Florida's doubleheader against Jacksonville on Feb. 17, 2016, at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium.
