Florida Softball Releases 2011 Schedule
Wednesday, October 20, 2010 | Softball
VIEW THE 2011 SCHEDULE, INCLUDING DATES AND TIMES, HERE
Florida head softball coach Tim Walton unveiled the Gators' 2011 softball schedule Wednesday afternoon. Four spring tournaments and four home Southeastern Conference three-game series, with visits by fellow 2010 Women's College World Series participants Georgia and Tennessee, as well as April dates with Arkansas and 2010 SEC Champion Alabama, highlight the 2011 lineup. The Gators will also host league foe Mississippi State in a mid-week doubleheader on March 16 and face an exciting head-to-head match-up with 2010 WCWS Champion UCLA at the Cathedral City Classic in Palm Springs, Calif., Feb. 25. The Gators' competitive 2011 schedule features 18 teams that played in the 2010 NCAA Tournament.
Florida is coming off of its third-consecutive WCWS appearance after also garnering a top-five seed in the NCAA Tournament for the third-straight year in 2010. Walton, who is fast approaching his 400th career victory (398-131; .752) and is 25 wins from his 300th victory at the helm of the Florida program (275-67; .804), coached the Gators to a 49-10 record last season, in which the squad set or tied 28 school records. Collaboratively, Florida eclipsed the 600 –win mark as a program, boasting two All-Americans, including returning senior pitcher Stephanie Brombacher (Pembroke Pines, Fla.). Florida's 2011 team features a class of five newcomers, including Gatorade National Player of the Year Kasey Fagan (Dunnellon, Fla.), and returns 11 letterwinners from the 2010 squad.
For the second-consecutive year and the third time in the last five years, the Gators will kick off the 2011 campaign on the road with the USF Tournament in Tampa, Fla., a five-game stint from Feb. 11-13, and will face Florida Gulf Coast (2/11), Marshall (2/11), NC State (2/12), Long Island (2/12) and USF (2/13) during the three-day span. Last year, the Gators topped both Long Island and USF at the same event. Florida will continue its season-opening road games by traveling to face Jacksonville University in a mid-week tilt Feb. 16 before returning to Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium for the home-opening weekend series with 2009 NCAA tournament Team North Carolina Feb. 19-20.
The Gators will hit the road for their second tournament of the spring Feb. 24-26, the Cathedral City Classic in Palm Springs, Calif., which will feature three more 2010 NCAA Tournament opponents. UF will face Indiana (2/24), Texas (2/24), San Diego State (2/25) and a rematch with 2010 WCWS Champion UCLA (2/25) after the two teams met in Oklahoma City last June. Florida will conclude the Palm Springs tournament, where six Gators will return to their native California, with a final game against Utah Feb. 26.
The Orange and Blue will open March with its annual home tournament, this year featuring Valparaiso (3/4), Syracuse (3/4), North Dakota State (3/5), University of the Pacific (3/5) and Gardner-Webb (3/6) in Gainesville. The second week in March brings Florida's SEC opener with a doubleheader against LSU in Baton Rouge before the Gators take to the road to Clearwater, Fla., for their fourth and final tournament of the 2011 regular season. The Gators will clash with Connecticut (3/11), Robert Morris (3/11), 2010 NCAA Regional participants Ball State (3/12) and Nebraska (3/12), and in-state rival USF (3/13) in the University of South Florida-hosted tournament before returning to the friendly confines of Pressly Stadium to kick off the 2011 conference slate.
Florida will host its league home opener against Mississippi State with a mid-week doubleheader March 16 before heading to Ole Miss for a series with the Rebels March 18-20. Florida's match up with Ole Miss will be the first of eight Friday, Saturday, Sunday three-game series for the Gators next spring. UF will return home March 25-27 to face off against SEC Eastern Division rival Georgia, which Florida saw just once last season in the WCWS following a rainout of the regular-season series. The Gators have won eight of the last nine meetings with the Bulldogs. On the final date of March play, Florida will host USF in Gainesville in the third and final regular-season meeting between the two teams in 2011 (3/30).
The Gators will head deep into league play in April, taking to the road for three SEC showdowns, starting with Kentucky (4/1-3), followed by Auburn (4/15-17) and South Carolina (4/29-5/1). After facing all three squads in Gainesville last season, Florida will head to Lexington, Auburn and Columbia, respectively, after taking the series with the Wildcats and sweeping both Auburn and South Carolina last season. SEC Western Division rivals Arkansas (4/8-10) and 2010 SEC Champion and NCAA Super Regional participant Alabama (4/22-24) will make trips to Gainesville. Florida, which took two of three games in Tuscaloosa against the Crimson Tide last season, will also look to build on its 29-10 all-time series lead over the Razorbacks.
UF will additionally host mid-week games against in-state rivals FIU (4/13) and UCF (4/20) in April before finishing up the regular–season schedule with four-straight home games, including FSU (5/4) and a three-game series with WCWS participant and SEC Eastern Division foe Tennessee, over which the Gators hold a 34-19 all-time advantage and a 19-5 edge in Gainesville.
The SEC Tournament is scheduled to begin on Thurs., May 12, in Oxford, Miss., with the championship game slated to be played on May 14. The NCAA Tournament will begin with Regional action May 19 at 16 campus sites across the country, while Super Regionals will kick off May 26 at eight different collegiate venues. The eight-team WCWS in Oklahoma City, Okla., runs from June 2-8.
