Kelly Barnhill looked over at pitcher Katie Chronister’s signal, looked down at her wristband on her left arm and exhaled.
She toed the rubber, rocked back, sprang forward and fired a 2-2 offering past Minnesota designated player Taylor Chell, who could only slump her arms in frustration after watching the pitch go by.
Strikeout No. 1,000.
The crowd at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium gave Barnhill a standing ovation, and her teammates in the infield and coach Tim Walton gathered around the pitcher’s circle to congratulate her.
“I really wasn’t thinking about it,” Barnhill said. “I knew I was approaching it … it was just kind of something that I really wasn’t expecting.”
“What do we have, two pitchers in our history having over a 1000 strikeouts?” Walton said. “That’s a pretty big accomplishment, especially for this program.”
Barnhill joined Stacey Nelson (1,116) as the only pitchers in school history to strike out 1,000 batters.
Designated player Kendyl Lindaman hit a two-run bomb in the first inning against her former team, and a complete-game shutout by Barnhill gave the Florida softball team a much-needed 2-0 win over No. 20 Minnesota (19-9).
First baseman Amanda Lorenz led off the top of the first with a walk after an eight-pitch at-bat. Lindaman then socked Minnesota pitcher Amber Fiser’s 2-1 pitch over the left-field wall for an early 2-0 lead.
“It was a good moment,” Lindaman said. “You know, I’m so close to some of those girls, but I’ve put a lot of hard work in lately, and I think it really paid off.”
The Gators (25-6) had a chance to extend the lead later in the inning with runners on second and third with one out but couldn’t convert after striking out twice.
That was the story of the night for UF’s offense. It struggled to put runners in scoring position and was hitless in six at-bats when it did. The Gators also left nine runners on base in six innings.
But it didn’t matter because Barnhill shut down Minnesota.
The senior didn’t allow a hit after the fourth inning and struck out 12 batters and walked only two.
Wednesday night’s win was an important rebound win for Florida over a ranked opponent after dropping two-straight SEC series to start conference play. The team gets a weekend off from SEC competition with two games against Mercer on Saturday and Sunday.
Follow Brendan Farrell on Twitter @Bfarrell727 and contact him at bfarrell@alligator.org.
Pitcher Kelly Barnhill eclipsed 1,000 career strikeouts in the Gators 2-0 win over Minnesota on Wednesday.
