No. 3/4 Gators Ready for Eastern Michigan Thursday, 2012 Lipton Invitational March 2-4
Wednesday, February 29, 2012 | Softball
Watch head coach Tim Walton talk about California and preview the Lipton Invite
Eastern Michigan & Lipton Invitational Game Notes
A match-up with the Eastern Michigan Eagles Thursday and the 2012 Lipton Invitational March 2-4 await the No. 3/4 Gator softball team this weekend, a six-game home stand for the Florida squad, which improved to 13-1 on the season after competition at the Cathedral City Classic in Palm Springs Feb. 23-25.
The Gators and Eagles will collide Thursday in a 6 p.m. clash, before the Eagles, Gardner-Webb Bulldogs, Tennessee State Tigers and Campbell Camels embark upon Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium for UF's annual home tournament Friday through Sunday. For a complete schedule of all 13 tournament games, click here to view game times, dates and to access links to stats, radio and box scores.
All games this weekend will have live, online statistics through GameTracker, while each Florida match-up will be broadcast live locally and online at 104.9-FM, 105 The Game, with the call by Mike Gillespie and former Gator All-American Megan Bush.
The Orange and Blue went 4-1 in California, including its first two wins over Top-25 opponents with 6-4 and 5-1 victories over then-No. 16/14 Texas A&M and No. 8 Texas, respectively. The Washington Huskies served the Gators their first loss of the season with a 5-2 victory over UF on the first day of the tournament in Cathedral City. Florida additionally topped both BYU and Boise State, 3-0, for two more wins on the road swing.
Sophomore ace Hannah Rogers (Lake Wales, Fla.) picked up three wins in the circle for UF against Texas A&M, Texas and Boise State, while freshman Lauren Haeger (Peoria, Ariz.) tallied one win against BYU and the Washington loss, as classmate Alyssa Bache (Clearwater, Fla.) earned her first career save against the Cougars. The trio collaborated for 34 strikeouts, led by Rogers' 20, while limiting opponents to a .223 batting clip.
With two shutouts against BYU and Boise State, Florida now has seven on the 2012 campaign to go along with seven run-rule victories and one extra-innings win against USF in Tampa. Throughout UF's three-day stay in California, the Gators put up 19 runs on 28 hits, six homers, two doubles and a triple. Florida drew 13 walks and turned three double plays on the defensive side.
Gator head coach Tim Walton is approaching a coaching milestone as Florida returns home to take to the field this weekend at Pressly Stadium. Walton owns 344 wins as the Gator head coach. Should Florida win its six games slated Thursday through Sunday, the seventh-year head coach will hit 350 victories at the helm of the Gator softball program.
Florida eclipsed a program record earlier this year with its 700th program victory on February 18 with the 11-1 victory over Michigan State. The Gators now have 705 wins in the history of UF softball in its 16th season of existence.
This weekend will serve as a type of homecoming for one visiting coach in Tennessee State head coach Jeff Dabney, who served as a volunteer assistant coach at Florida in 2006 under Walton in his first year on campus as Gator head coach.
Through UF's 14 games this season, Sami Fagan (Dunnellon, Fla.) leads the Orange and Blue at the plate with a .500 batting clip and 23 hits, while sophomore Cheyenne Coyle (West Hills, Calif.) has a team-leading five homers and 10 walks drawn. Junior Brittany Schutte (Fountain Valley, Calif.) and Haeger each have 17 RBI for UF, while Schutte and S. Fagan have .563 and .549 on-base percentages thus far.
SCOUTING THIS WEEKEND'S OPPONENTS
Eastern Michigan: 2-7 overall this season, UF leads series 2-0, last meeting Feb. 26, 2007 (UF 9, EMU
1; six innings)
Gardner-Webb: 6-8 overall this season, UF leads series 3-0, last meeting Feb. 23, 2008 (UF 4, Gardner-
Webb 3)
Tennessee State: 4-5 overall this season, first meeting between the two programs Saturday
Campbell: 7-8 overall this season, UF leads series 3-0, last meeting Feb. 19, 2010 (UF 7, Campbell 0)
FLORIDA NOTABLES ENTERING THE WEEKEND
· While freshmen Alyssa Bache and Lauren Haeger are consistent contributors in the circle for the Gators, sophomore ace Hannah Rogers has been the leader. Rogers leads UF in wins (8), innings pitched (44.2) and strikeouts (49), having fanned 20 of the 49 batters in the last weekend in Palm Springs. Rogers has just a 0.68 ERA and did not allow an earned run until Texas A&M's four Feb. 23, her only earned runs allowed throughout the 2012 season thus far.
· Junior Brittany Schutte strung together 10-consecutive hits from 2/15-2/23, grounding out in the very first at-bat against Jacksonville Feb. 15 and connecting in every at-bat through her first AB of the Texas A&M contest. She became just the first Gator to string together such a strand of hits since Lindsey Cameron had 11 in 2005. Schutte also tied a career-long eight game hit streak from Feb. 12 versus FGCU to Feb. 24 versus BYU. The streak came to a close Feb. 24 in UF's 5-1 victory over Texas.
· Freshman hurler Alyssa Bache tossed a perfect game through four innings in the Saturday match-up with Michigan State, her first career start. Bache then had a hit-by pitch that spoiled her perfect game, while two hits then ruined a no-hitter. The freshman, however, still solidified her first victory in her first career start donning the Orange and Blue. Bache went on to record her first career save against the BYU Cougars in Palm Springs, tossing an inning of hitless, scoreless relief in the 3-0 victory.
· The Gators have never faced Tennessee State in their 15-year history as a program. Saturday will be the first meetings between the Gators and Tigers; likewise, the only team any of this year's players have ever faced is Campbell in 2010.
· Senior Michelle Moultrie reached base in 47 consecutive games dating back to her junior season in 2011, a streak that ended Feb. 23 vs. Washington.
· Freshman leadoff Sami Fagan is the only Gator that has reached base in every softball game for the Gators this season.
· Moultrie has recorded a hit in 99 of 121 Gator games since her sophomore season.
