Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — There's a prevailing wisdom on the college diamond this time of year that says a coach is supposed to save his ace pitcher in the event of an elimination game. Maybe, just maybe, Florida coach Tim Walton would have done that. 

If he didn't have two aces, that is. 

The top-seeded Gators were shut out by Oklahoma State 1-0 in Sunday's championship round to force a winner-take-all Game 2 with a Super Regional berth on the line. UF threw its all-world pitcher, Kelly Barnhill, in the first game and despite limiting the Cowgirls to just three hits she lost for only the second time all season when OSU pushed home the game's lone run in the bottom of the sixth. 

Just like that, Florida faced its first elimination game in regional play since 2012. 

For most coaches, this would have presented something of a dilemma. 

"There was no question in my mind who was going to get the ball in Game 2," Walton said. 

With the season (and her career) on the line, senior lefty Delanie Gourley got the call and promptly did what she seems to do every postseason when stress levels are at their peak. Gourley fired a one-hit, 11-strikeout masterpiece, riding the momentum of junior Nicole DeWitt's towering two-run homer in the first inning in putting down the Cowgirls 5-0 and advancing the Gators (53-7) to their fifth straight Super Regional, where they'll host Southeastern Conference foil Alabama (45-16) next weekend at Seashole Stadium. 

"It's like being at the Kentucky Derby," OSU coach Kenny Gajewski said. "They just keep running out horse after horse."

Gajewski, who won a pair of NCAA titles during his three seasons (2013-15) as Walton's assistant and had a big hand in recruiting the current UF roster, had to bleed his big arm, senior Brandi Needham, to the tune of 18 innings just to get his team to Sunday. Needham was terrific in the first game, scattering seven UF hits and even working out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the fourth on her way to throwing 121 pitches. 

The win was OSU's first over a No. 1-ranked team since 2011. 

"We got to enjoy it for about five seconds," catcher Vanessa Shippy said. 

 
Gajewski couldn't roll Needham back out for that second game; at least, not right away. Instead, OSU went with Shea Coats, who began the day with an 8-9 record and 4.17 ERA. She was immediately greeted by an Amanda Lorenz double, then the DeWitt homer in her only inning. 

In the second, Gajewski tried to see what he could get from Logan Simunek (6-3, 3.88). Answer: two pitches. The first was a solid single by Sophia Reynosa. The second hit Jamie Hoover in the arm, putting two UF runners on with no out, and coaxing Gajewski out of the dugout and to the circle. 

That's when he went back to Needham. He had no choice. 

When the inning ended, the Gators were up 3-0 and had had their crowd in the game. 

Oh, and Gourley with the ball. 

So on a day it took absolutely everything the Cowgirls possibly could muster — not to mention some poor hitting and base-running from the Gators — to squeak out a 1-0 defeat of the nation's No. 1 team and best pitcher, their reward was a date against Gourley, a fixture in virtually every UF Top 10 statistical category and maybe the most mentally tough player in the dugout. 

Like Walton said, there was no question in his mind. 

"I have a lot of confidence in Delanie," Walton said. "She does the job of being that catalyst and does it with that fearless face of hers that can stare a hole right through you." 

With a smile, no less. 

Gourley announced herself by striking out the side in the first. When DeWitt smashed her bomb in the bottom of the inning, not only did it give the Gators their first runs of the day, but it gave Gourley an early jolt of confidence. 

As if she needed it. 

"I didn't feel like that much pressure," Gourley said. "I knew I wasn't going anywhere, that we weren't going anywhere as a team. We were going to beat the team in the other dugout. If it took that [first] loss to get us going, that's good." 

When she retired the game's final batter, Gourley improved to 20-4 on the season and dropped her ERA to 0.71. She pitched 12 scoreless innings and was the pitcher of record in two of UF's three regional wins. In her other appearance, all she did was no-hit Florida A&M in five innings Friday. 

This is the same Gourley, of course, who threw an NCAA no-hitter as a freshman in 2014 and was the winning pitcher at the Women's College World Series the night the Gators clinched their first NCAA crown. A year later, Gourley was summoned in Game 1 of Florida's title series against Michigan to put out a two-on, no-out fire in the final inning — and did that, too. 

So add this one to the list. 

"She just continues to perform at a high level and when the pressure is on," Gajewski said. "She has a chip on her shoulder that every time they give her the ball in a big moment she's going to get the job done." 

Not a bad Plan B, huh?  

Or a Plan A, for that matter.