Kelly Barnhill’s 14th start of the year came in an unorthodox manner.
Georgia’s Cortni Emanuel cracked a ball right in front of Barnhill, who scooped it up and threw it to first baseman Kayli Kvistad.
The toss came too late according to the first base umpire, a call that did not sit well with fans at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium.
Murmurs among the crowd of fans at Katie Seashole Pressly stadium spread rapidly.
Emanuel’s sister, Sydni, grazed another ball, sending it to nearly the exact same position for Barnhill on the very next at-bat.
Once again, Barnhill tossed the ball over to Kvistad.
Once again, Emanuel just got the plate in time.
The murmurs turned into profound chants of displeasure from Gator fans throughout the attendance record-breaking game.
Momentum would quickly swing back to Barnhill, who earned a complete game shutout on SEC rival Georgia in a series opening 5-0 win for No. 3 Florida.
“Those were amazing bunts,” Barnhill said. “You pretty much just gotta move on to the next batter.”
A crowd of 2,497 softball fans watched in awe as the sophomore pitcher connected on seven strikeouts and only walked two on a season-high 113 pitches.
In the top of the second inning, junior catcher Janell Wheaton caught a Barnhill ball and heaved it over the pitcher’s circle to catch a Bulldog runner trying to reach second.
“Janell was phenomenal throwing people out, Barnhill said. “Had to duck real quick to get out of the way of some of those balls.”
Barnhill immediately flung her body to the dirt, looking as though she were playing twister as she balanced one arm on the ground and allowed Wheaton to make the tough out.
On offense, Florida (35-2, 11-1 SEC) scored sparingly, taking advantage of a few jams that the Bulldogs (27-11, 2-8 SEC) put themselves in defensively.
In the bottom of the first inning, Georgia junior pitcher Brittany Gray allowed two straight walks with two runners on base to get the Gators on the board early.
The bottom of the fourth proved to be dinner time for a hungry Florida offense. The Gators were able to go through their entire batting lineup and earned RBIs for outfielders Justine McLean and Amanda Lorenz.
Two more runs came unearned from Jordan Roberts as she reached on an error and got the last two scores for Florida, cementing a lead of five.
“You always want to jump on a team early,” second baseman Nicole DeWitt said. “We happened to get the first run and the momentum went our way.”
The two teams hadn’t played since the Bulldogs handed Florida its most disappointing loss in recent memory, with Georgia winning on a walk-off in the NCAA Super Regionals to send the Gators packing for the season.
Now, the two teams will meet again Sunday night with a chance for Florida to get redemption and clinch the series. First pitch is set for 7 p.m.
Follow Skyler Lebron on Twitter at @SkylerLebron, or contact him at slebron@alligator.org.
Kelly Barnhill tosses a pitch in the Gators' 5-0 win over the Georgia Bulldogs on Saturday.
