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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Gators lose two straight series for first time since 2011

<p>Catcher Kendyl Lindaman hit a grand slam to give the Gators the 4-1 lead in the seventh inning. Florida topped Mississippi State 4-3 on Saturday.</p>

Catcher Kendyl Lindaman hit a grand slam to give the Gators the 4-1 lead in the seventh inning. Florida topped Mississippi State 4-3 on Saturday.

UF second baseman Hannah Adams stabbed at a ground ball with her glove hand, attempting to backhand the softball. She dropped it, picked it up and threw to first in attempt to beat the runner, Amber Serrett.

Florida began to leave the diamond thinking it got the final out of the sixth inning, but first base umpire Ron Alexander disagreed. The safe call allowed LSU’s Shemiah Sanchez to score from third and tied the game at 2-2.

The No. 9 Tigers celebrated victory one inning later. Missouri graduate transfer Amanda Sanchez blasted a walk-off double against Kelly Barnhill to score speedster Aliyah Andrews from first and give her team the 3-2 victory.

LSU (24-6, 4-2 SEC) claimed the three-game series on Monday, and the UF softball team has lost two consecutive series for the first time since 2011 (Georgia and Kentucky).

The No. 7 Gators struggled to string together hits and advance base runners in all three contests. They hit 5 for 44 with runners on and only had 11 hits for the series.

Kendyl Lindaman was the lone UF player to produce offensively. She went 4 for 9 with two home runs, and her six RBIs accounted for all of Florida’s runs over the three legs.

The rest of the team went a combined 7 for 60 at the plate.

Lindaman ignited the Gators (24-6, 2-4 SEC) with a two-run home run off LSU’s Shelby Wickersham in the top of the first inning on Monday.

Amanda Lorenz led off the game with a double off the top of the wall in left-center. Then, Lindaman belted a rise ball over the wall on almost the same line as Lorenz’s hit. It was her fifth home run of the season.

It was up to Barnhill to try and stifle the LSU offense for the remainder of the competition.

She allowed two earned runs on five hits and five walks, the most bases on balls given up by a Gators pitcher this season. She also threw 120 pitches in 6.1 innings.

Barnhill had a tough matchup with Sanchez and an LSU team batting .349 for the season entering the night. Sanchez came in with the SEC’s second-highest batting average (.507), highest on-base percentage (.639) and most doubles (12).

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Barnhill forced the Tigers’ third baseman to fly out in the first inning but walked her in the third. The free pass moved Savannah Stewart to second, who later scored on a Shelbi Sunseri single to make it 2-1.

Sanchez popped out in foul territory in the fifth but provided the clutch hit in the seventh. She grooved a 3-0 offering to the opposite field for her 13th double and 35th RBI of the year.

LSU hadn’t defeated Florida in a best-of-three series in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, since 2007.

Follow Mark Stine on Twitter @mstinejr and contact him at mstine@alligator.org.

Junior Kendyl Lindaman went 5 for 9 at the plate with two home runs and six RBI's in the Gators series against LSU.

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