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Friday, March 29, 2024
<p>UF designated player Kendyl Lindaman hit the game winning home run in the 15th inning to give Florida a 5-2 win over Ole Miss.</p>

UF designated player Kendyl Lindaman hit the game winning home run in the 15th inning to give Florida a 5-2 win over Ole Miss.

An empty bucket and a crumpled-up lineup card.

These objects are examples of UF softball coach Tim Walton’s frustrations.

Walton kicked a bucket in the dugout during the Gators’ 2-0 loss to Florida State on April 3. He said after the defeat that he doesn’t display his displeasure often, and he has limited it to booting the thankfully empty bucket as well as crushing a lineup card earlier in the season.

The offensive struggles are plenty reason for Walton to be frustrated. His team hit just 1 for 12 with runners on base against Florida State’s All-ACC pitcher Meghan King. UF lost despite out-hitting the Seminoles 6-4.

The No. 6 Gators haven’t found any consistency outside their first three batters. They won’t get late-season, series-winning hits if they can’t find another reliable bat.

Amanda Lorenz and Kendyl Lindaman are both All-Americans, and their continued success is undeniable.

Leadoff batter Jade Caraway strung together a nine-game hitting streak before going hitless over the weekend against Arkansas. However, she did manage to score twice in the three-game series against the Razorbacks.

The main constant among these three batters is that they’ve had success in the past.

Lorenz is one of the most prolific offensive players in program history. Lindaman belted 40 home runs and 131 RBIs in two seasons for Minnesota. Caraway knocked 72 hits her freshman year at North Carolina State and led off during both her campaigns there.

Spots four through nine are all question marks, and nobody in that part of the lineup has experience producing offensively on a season-long basis.

Florida’s clean-up hitter, Sophia Reynoso, is there for her ability to get on base, sacrifice bunt and provide long, gutsy at-bats. She’s there because she can be trusted, not for her ability to drive in runs.

Reynoso hasn’t batted over .300 in any of her three seasons at UF or eclipsed 27 RBIs. The only offensive category she leads the team in this year is hit-by-pitches (18).

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Jaimie Hoover, Hannah Adams and Jordan Roberts are shaping up to be the fifth, sixth and seventh hitters, in no particular order.

Hoover hit fifth on Sunday but has been in and out of the lineup all season.

Adams is batting .307 with 18 RBIs and 10 extra base hits, decent but not dangerous numbers for a mid-lineup option.

Roberts packs a lot of power, but she also leads the team in strikeouts (31).

At the bottom of the order is either Jordan Matthews, Alex Voss or Hannah Sipos.

We know Matthews for her walk-off home run against Texas A&M in the 2018 NCAA Super Regionals, but she’s hitting a modest .229 in 2019.

Voss, a senior center fielder, and Sipos, a freshman third baseman, are primarily defensive options and batting .257 and .145, respectively.

The UF offense did look better in the sweep of Arkansas, but it benefitted from suspect defense behind Arkansas’ top pitcher, Autumn Storms. All six of the runs Storms allowed in her two starts were unearned thanks to four errors.

The Gators can’t completely rely on their pitching even though they lead the SEC in earned run average (1.76).

There’s hardly a better option than two-time All-American Kelly Barnhill, but she’s susceptible to giving up home runs and has yet to find her best stuff in 2019.

Behind her is freshman Elizabeth Hightower, who won her first SEC game against the Razorbacks on Saturday.

If Florida is going to beat a quality opponent in the Super Regionals, it’ll need better run support for its pitchers.

Mark Stine is a sports writer. Follow him on Twitter @mstinejr or contact him at mstine@alligator.org.

Kendyl Lindaman leads the Gators' softball team in RBIs (43) and home runs (13) this season.

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