Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — In describing what it meant to be going back to the Women's College World Series this year, Florida coach Tim Walton relived a moment from last year. 

The Gators, the nation's No. 1-ranked team and NCAA Tournament top overall seed, were into the early postmortem hours of Georgia's walk-off home run/gut punch in Game 2 of their 2016 Super Regional matchup, a play that ended UF's season and a run of three straight trips to Oklahoma City. Walton was driving home from Seashole Pressly Stadium, turning left at the corner of 43rd Street and 23rd Avenue — yes, he remembers the exact spot — when a text popped up on his phone. 

It was from then-freshman Amanda Lorenz. 

This will never happen again. 

Walton may have gotten a little misty-eyed in reliving that anecdote following UF's 2-1 grinder of a victory Saturday night over Alabama in the decisive third game of their home Super Regional. Lorenz got it going with a lead-off single in the first off Crimson Tide star Alexis Osorio, who shut out the Gators 3-0 two days earlier in Game 1. Lorenz went on to tally the game's first run on an RBI single from Aleshia Ocasio three batters later. The Gators got a second run that inning when, with the bases loaded, Jordan Roberts got hit by a pitch on an 0-2 count. 

Two first-inning runs off a pitcher who'd surrendered none in her three previous NCAA Tournament appearances. Seemed like a million runs at the time, Walton said, given Florida's offensive struggles to date. 

But that 2-0 lead for sophomore ace Kelly Barnhill did something for the 2,216 in the house, not to mention the UF dugout. 

"We just had this feeling," said senior Delanie Gourley, who hurled a four-hit, shutout gem in Friday night's 2-0 win that evened the series and made Saturday's mayhem possible. "We knew it was going to happen." 

But Barnhill had some work to do, especially after Bama's Rachel Bobo tagged her for a two-out triple and scored on an Elissa Brown infield single in the second inning, to make the score 2-1 with a whole lot of at-bats to go. Remember, it was Barnhill who was slicing and dicing the Tide — nine strikeouts through the first 12 batters — Thursday when back-to-back throwing errors off routine sacrifice bunts back to pitcher accounted for all the runs in what turned out to be just her third loss of the season; and in her first Super Regional appearance, no less. 

How did she deal with it?  

"The other night was the other night," Barnhill said. "We just had to come out and play Florida softball." 

That means pitching and defense. 
 
After Bobo's triple and Brown's infield beat-out, Barnhill retired the next 13 batters; the next 14, actually, but the leadoff hitter in the seventh, Reagan Dykes, struck out swinging, but the ball skipped to the backstop for a wild pitch and the Tide had the leadoff — and tying — run on first with no out. 

Barnhill's answer: 

• Strikeout 
• Fielder's choice 
• Strikeout 

Oh, and orange and blue dog pile. 

"It was amazing. To be able to get the last out, to have everybody out there and celebrating … for some of us, it'll be the first time [in Oklahoma City]. For some of us, it'll be the last time,'' Barnhill said. "It's just great to be a contributor to getting us there."

Contributor. 

Yeah, that's fairly accurate, if not grossly understated, yet that's OK.

(Or maybe I should say, that's OKC) 

But the Gators are headed back in the WCWS for the eighth time in the last 10 years. In case anyone forgot, UF won the whole shebang the last two times it was there (2014 and '15), but Walton wasn't talking about that. Instead, he talked about the degree of difficulty attached to merely getting there. 

"No matter how many times we've done it, its never been easy," Walton said. "That's one thing I have not taken for granted. When you end your season in Oklahoma City — win or lose — it's an accomplishment in itself." 

The Gators acted accordingly in the postgame celebration. Somewhere in the chaos (the fun kind), Lorenz found Walton and gave him a hug, followed by a couple words. 

"Told ya."