Kennesaw State provides the Gators with a stepping stone toward conference play.
Florida (14-1) welcomes Kennesaw State (6-9) to Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium Wednesday before it faces No. 9 Kentucky this weekend.
The No. 6 Gators split a two-game series against then-No. 16 Florida State and relinquished their first loss of the season Saturday. FSU marked Florida’s first top-25 opponent.
After a relief appearance in last week’s matchup against New Mexico State, Florida pitcher Elizabeth Hightower earned SEC Pitcher of the Week. Hightower (7-0) solely slung two of four one-hit games and made appearances in the other two.
Florida pitcher Katie Chronister broke a 22-inning scoreless streak in the loss against FSU, but head coach Tim Walton chalked it up to a glitch in the system.
“I’m not really taking too much to it,” Walton said. “We were probably only one or two pitches away from coming out of that, giving up one run as opposed to five.”
Offensively, UF went three up, three down in four innings against FSU.
Freshman infielder Avery Goelz consistently appears at the plate and started in 13 of 15 games so far. Goelz expressed confidence in her team’s ability to reflect and improve.
“It’s still early in the season,” Goelz said. “We’re gonna work a lot harder to be ready for better pitching, especially when we get into the SEC.”
But before the start of conference play, Florida must get through Kennesaw State. It becomes the first meeting between the Gators and Owls.
The Owls’ 2021 season started with a trio of losses to then-No. 15 Virginia Tech. They discovered a pocket of success against No. 22 UCF through an 8-1 upset in the last of a three-game series. Kennesaw State pitcher Melanie Bennet allowed one run on six hits and collected the win.
First pitch is scheduled to fly at 6 p.m. The game will stream on SEC Network+.
Contact Rachel Slay at rslay@alligator.org and follow her on Twitter @racheljslay
