Alex Voss couldn’t help but smile as she rounded third. The senior center fielder and team captain beamed once she saw her teammates stationed around home plate to greet her after her home run. Once she touched home, she was swarmed.
“I didn’t know what was going on. I knew I hit it hard, and then I saw it going,” Voss said. “I saw coach Walton. I think he like smiled, laughed a little bit, and then I sprinted into Sophia’s (Reynoso) arms.”
The three-run home run was the first of her career and gave the No. 3 Gators softball team a healthy 5-1 advantage over Illinois State in the third inning.
It was a career day for Voss, who went 4 for 5 with a home run, two triples and six RBIs during Saturday’s doubleheader at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium.
She vaulted UF to a 10-2 run-rule win, it defeated Syracuse 8-0 on another run-rule to improve to 16-0.
Raking the Redbirds
Florida opened its lead with a bunting barrage in the second inning. It dropped four consecutive bunts, starting with second baseman Hannah Adams. The batter was thrown out on only one of the four bunts.
After two bunts to get two runners in scoring position, third baseman Hannah Sipos brought outfielder Jaimie Hoover home for the day’s first run. Shortstop Sophia Reynoso dropped a bunt single to load the bases for left fielder Amanda Lorenz, who knocked an RBI on a fielder’s choice.
It wasn’t the best pitching performance from Natalie Lugo, who allowed five hits, a walk and two earned runs in five innings.
Lugo faced potential game-tying situations in the third and fifth innings.
She allowed a lead-off home run to catcher Ellie Weltha and a two-out double by Shannon Felde in the third. The sophomore right hander got out of the inning with a ground out to Adams at second.
Lugo allowed another run in the fifth: an RBI single by pitcher Mack Leonard. She a bases loaded jam with two outs, but forced another ground to Adams.
UF held a 5-2 lead heading into the fifth, where it scored two more. Back-to-back triples by Voss and pinch hitter Danielle Romanello brought the lead back to four, and a two-out single through the left side by freshman Cheyenne Lindsey made it five.
The Gators closed out the contest in the bottom of the sixth. Voss walked with the bases loaded, and Lorenz singled through the left side with two outs and a 2-2 count to score the final two runs.
Shelling Syracuse
Lorenz hit a home run on Friday, and she led off the game against Syracuse with another bomb over the right field wall.
“I’m pretty comfortable there. I like hitting there a lot,” Lorenz said about hitting leadoff. “That’s where I’ve hit most of my life.”
Lorenz has three lead-off home runs in eight days and five for the season. Florida scored five of its runs against Syracuse off of the long ball, and a grand slam helped put the game away in the fourth.
Catcher Kendyl Lindaman smashed an offering from Syracuse pitcher Peyton Schnackerberg with one out and a 1-1 count. The home run was Lindaman’s second of the year, and it made it Florida’s sixth multi-homer contest of the season.
Pitcher Kelly Barnhill had a below-average outing by her standards, but she still pitched well enough for her second complete-game shutout. The two-time All-American gave up three hits and struck out five, but she threw 58 strikes on 82 pitches, which is slightly below her normal rate.
UF coach Tim Walton took notice of both Barnhill and Lugo’s performances.
“You can see a little bit of fatigue setting in a little bit in our pitching staff,” UF coach Tim Walton said. “Just looking at the way Kelly and Natalie threw today, I’m definitely trying to figure out how to use them properly and recover properly.”
Follow Mark Stine on Twitter @mstinejr and contact him at mstine@alligator.org.
Jaimie Hoover had four runs in four at-bats in the Gators' Saturday doubleheader. Florida topped Illinois State 10-2 and defeated Syracuse 8-0.
