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Thursday, March 28, 2024
<p dir="ltr"><span>Florida pitcher Natalie Lugo is No. 6 in the NCAA in hits allowed per seven innings (2.26). She has allowed only seven hits and two walks this season.</span></p>
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Florida pitcher Natalie Lugo is No. 6 in the NCAA in hits allowed per seven innings (2.26). She has allowed only seven hits and two walks this season.

 

JACKSONVILLE - Members of the sold-out crowd at the Debbie & Fred Pruitt Softball Complex barely had time to settle into their seats.

 

Outfielder Amanda Lorenz punished Jacksonville pitcher Seana Mora’s second pitch of the game into the grassy lot beyond the right-field fence.

 

Lorenz’s solo blast was the beginning of a 5-0 win over the Dolphins.

“Got a pitch and swung at it and managed to make contact,” Lorenz said. “I guessed right.”

Pitcher Natalie Lugo kept the JU offense at bay the entire night in a complete-game shutout of the Dolphins. Her 13 strikeouts were a career high.

“I wasn’t really keeping track of how many strikeouts I had through the game, so finding out at the end, it felt good,” Lugo said.

Rain caused stoppages in the top of both the first and fifth innings of the game. JU’s smaller roster meant that both teams had assist in getting the damp, muddy field in playing condition to get the game going again after the delay in the fifth.

“Once the tarp got taken off, and all the water is in right field, I was like, ‘Eh, this doesn’t look very good,’said coach Tim Walton. “But by the time we got the water to the drains and got everything off, then obviously the field held the moisture a little better.”

Mora struggled with her control in a start that only lasted a couple innings, which the Gators took advantage of in the second. Mora drilled third baseman Hannah Sipos with a pitch and walked shortstop Sophia Reynoso along with giving up a single. First baseman Jordan Matthews made Mora pay for it with a two-RBI single to extend the lead to three.

Florida scored two more runs in the second inning, one of which was walked home by Mora, to take a commanding 5-0 lead. The Gators had a couple more opportunities to score later in the game but couldn’t convert.

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The important thing for Florida now heading into the six-game Bubly Invitational at home is to get some rest and to finally get some quality practice time at the new facilities, according to Walton.

“Now we’ll get a real day of practice tomorrow and get ready to go,” Walton said. “And I think that’s the thing I’m excited about.”

Follow Brendan Farrell on Twitter @Bfarrell727 and contact him at bfarrell@alligator.org.

Natalie Lugo pitched her first complete-game shutout of the season in the Gators 5-0 win over Jacksonville Wednesday.

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