Wanted: Timely hitting from No. 2 softball squad after third loss in four games
Sunday, April 29, 2012 | Football, Softball, Chris Harry
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- The bottom of the fifth and Kentucky led Florida 1-0. The Gators, though, had the bases loaded with no outs and Lauren Haeger, the Gators' No. 3 hitter and RBI leader, coming to the plate.
The loud crowd on hand for second-ranked UF's regular-season home finale was jacked for a big inning.
Haeger, the freshman from Peoria, Ariz., crushed a ball down the left field line that just barely went outside the foul pole. Two pitches later, she bombed one to the warning track in dead centerfield, allowing Jess Damico to tag from third with the tying run.
“I was ecstatic,” Haeger said. “It was five feet from going out, but we got the run across. That's what matters.”
Yes and no.
The next two batters, clean-up hitter Bailey Castro and Cheyenne Coyle, struck out and popped, respectively, leaving two Gators stranded. The seventh and eight UF runners left on for the game.
Kentucky answered with four runs in the sixth, including the kind of clutch bases-clearing double the home team could have used a half-inning before. UK went on to a 5-1 victory that gave the Wildcats (26-27, 12-13) their second win in the series while handing the Gators (43-8, 21-5) their third loss in the last four games.
Florida had its chances against pitcher Chanda Bell, but struggled to capitalize in situational-hitting opportunities.
Coach Tim Walton (pictured upper right) put it more bluntly.
“We were awful,” he said.
Walton was quick to credit Bell, who allowed just four hits in shutting out the Gators 2-0 Friday, but that doesn't mean he was any less frustrated with his team's lack of opportunistic bats.
[Worth noting: UF's 3-4-5 hitters went 3-for-26 with three RBI during the Kentucky series, including 1-for-9 Sunday]
“We had a runner on first base and no outs twice,” he said. “Had a runner on second base and no outs. We had bases loaded, no outs. We had runner on second and third, no outs.. Yeah, again, their pitcher took it to another gear, but our kids went up there and really took some bad swings.”
Bad timing. 
With the loss, UF fell back into a tie for first place with No. 4 Alabama, with the Gators headed to Tuscaloosa next week for a series that could decide the regular-season SEC champion -- No. 7 Tennessee also is smack in the hunt, too -- and be key in setting the seeds for the conference tournament, the following weekend -- also in Tuscaloosa.
After that, the Gators hope to be back home for an NCAA regional. Home and hitting, preferably.
Oh, and scoring.
“It can definitely be contagious,” catcher Kelsey Horton, the lone Gator with two hits Sunday, said of the team's lack for timely knocks of late. “We have to prepare for those situations better in practice -- getting those runners home -- and we have to just get mentally tougher. When you're up there, you can't chase bad pitches. We have to stick the plan and execute it.”
The Gators also may be dealing with some bad luck, too. Take Haeger's at-bat.
She crushed the ball twice. A couple feet here or there -- on either the towering foul or the drive to the deepest part of Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium -- and this blog likely has a very different tone.
“Changes the whole complexion,” Walton said. “But we still had first and second -- and one out.”
And got nothing after that.
“We had some momentum going,” said Haeger (pictured above left). “We just have to make contact. I'm having trouble making contact with the ball. We have to put it in play, hit it hard, and good things will happen. I don't know why we can't make those adjustments quicker, but it'll come around for us.”
When it does, the runners will finally come around; around third base, that is.
