Kendyl Lindaman faced a 3-2 count against Alabama pitcher Sarah Cornell with two outs in the fifth during the second game of Friday night’s doubleheader.
The No. 6 Gators trailed by one run and had third baseman Hannah Sipos on second base. Lindaman smacked a Cornell’s offering high in the air and deep to left field. Merris Schroder, No. 5 Alabama’s left fielder, jogged to the warning track and waited.
SMACK.
The ball buried into Schroder’s dark brown glove.
The inning-ending out embodied a tough night of hitting for Florida (37-11, 9-8 SEC), as it lost both of it’s games to the Crimson Tide (44-4, 13-4) at home. UF only accumulated four hits despite the aid of 13 walks through both games and only scored two runs. The team went 0 for 12 with runners in scoring position.
“I thought they just had way better at bats than we did,” coach Tim Walton said. “I think they created a little bit more opportunity, a little bit more luck than we did.”
Game 1
Alabama outlasted Florida 3-1 in a pitcher’s duel between UF senior Kelly Barnhill and Crimson Tide freshman Montana Fouts. The two combined for only five hits and three earned runs.
Barnhill gave up three runs (two earned) on three hits and four walks in 5.1 innings. She collected six strikeouts, reaching 1,107 on her career (nine short of Stacey Nelson’s school record).
Fouts pitched a complete game, giving up one earned run on two hits and five walks with five strikeouts.
The Gators struck first in the bottom of the first thanks to a double by Lindaman. Left fielder Amanda Lorenz walked with one out, then Lindaman pummelled a 2-1 pitch into the right-center gap that plated Lorenz.
The Crimson Tide responded with two, two-out RBIs in the top of the third.
Barnhill walked two of the first three hitters in the inning, KB Sides and Skylar Wallace. Designated player Kaylee Tow stepped up with a 3-2 count and knocked a ground ball up the middle to score Sides from second, and first baseman Bailey Hemphill followed with another hit between the shortstop and second baseman to score Wallace.
Alabama got its third run courtesy of an error by second baseman Hannah Adams. Wallace led of the fourth inning with a triple off the left-field wall. Barnhill got two outs before forcing a routine ground ball from Hemphill to Adams, but the second baseman dropped the ball and Wallace scored. It was her fourth error of the season.
Game 2
Friday night’s second game ended 6-1 with the same result, and the Crimson Tide took the first-inning lead this time.
Back-to-back walks by Tow and Hemphill brought up Merris Schroder, who flew out deep right field to let Tow dash to third.
UA catcher Reagan Dykes hit a ground ball with wicked spin destined to the second baseman, but Adams was obstructed by a running Hemphill with just a little contact. No offensive interference was called, and Tow scored easily to stake a 1-0 lead for the visitors.
The Gators didn’t get a hit until the third inning when Lorenz tied the contest. She sat on a 1-2 change-up from Cornell and drove it over the right-center wall for a solo home run.
Wallace responded with a solo homer in the fifth to reinstate the Crimson Tide’s one-run lead.
Alabama claimed a 3-1 advantage in the sixth.
With pinch runner Kloyee Anderson on first after a single by Dykes, Sides tripled to right-center. Anderson was thrown out at home on a cut-off by Adams, who lasered a throw to Lindaman at the plate from about 120 feet. However, Sides scored on the next at-bat thanks to a single by third baseman Maddie Morgan.
Hemphill hammered a two-run home run in the seventh, and Morgan pumped an RBI single to seal Florida’s fate.
“The biggest key difference is who we’ve been playing at times,” Walton said. “We’re doing the same stuff all-year long. It’s the same old song and dance, the only difference is this team’s got a No. 3 or No. 4 next to their name.”
Follow Mark Stine on Twitter @mstinejr and contact him at mstine@alligator.org.
Senior Kelly Barnhill gave up three runs (two earned) on three hits and four walks in 5.1 innings in Game 1 against Alabama.
