Damico a big hit for Gators on final day of Senior Weekend
Sunday, April 26, 2015 | Softball, Volleyball, Chris Harry
![Senior Jessica Damico reacts after scoring the game-clinching run Saturday one batter after getting her first hit of the season, an RBI single, in a 9-1 defeat of Texas A&M. [Photos by Jim Burgess]](http://www.gatorzone.com/gallery/photos/3115/tn-3-sb-tamu-3-JimBurgess.jpg)
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- When pinch-hitter Jessica Damico stepped to the plate Sunday in the bottom of the fifth inning, it marked just the fourth at-bat of the season for the senior from Gray Summitt, Mo. Damico had appeared in 38 of Florida's 50 games coming in, but mostly as a pinch-runner or late-game defensive substitution.
Three years ago, Damico was named to the All-Southeastern Conference Freshman team, but Coach Tim Walton's penchant for adding marquee prospects to his program year after year impacted Damico's opportunities to get in the lineup. Eighty-six at-bats in 2012; then 74 in 2013; down to 10 in 2014.
And now came just her fourth of 2015.
In the final home game of Senior Weekend, no less.
So it was fitting Damico delivered two big plays to finish the game in run-rule fashion. She went with a pitch on the outside corner and slapped it sharply to right field for an RBI single and her first base hit of the season, then raced to second on a throwing error. On the very next pitch, Kelsey Stewart punched a single to short left field, with Damico rounding third base and scoring the game-winning run in a 9-1 defeat of Texas A&M.
That's 15 straight victories for the No. 1-ranked Gators (47-4, 16-4), who with the sweep of the 25th-ranked Aggies (34-17, 9-12) maintained a half-game lead on Auburn in the race for the SEC regular-season title.
“It's pretty awesome to know I still put in the work to get the job done that my team needed me to do,” Damico said. “They've supported me and I've supported them. It's nice to go out and give them what I have.” 
Her career statistics won't approach the home runs and pitching wins of Lauren Haeger (right), or the big hits by Bailey Castro or Brianna Little, or the stellar defense of Kathlyn Medina, but now Damico has another sweet memory to tuck away with all the others compiled alongside her senior sisters who came to Gainesville together in summer of 2011.
Throw in Francesca Martinez, who transferred to UF in 2014 from Daytona State, and all six seniors scored at least one run during the A&M series. Some of them did a lot more.
Haeger, as usual, comes to mind.
After surrendering a home run to Tori Vidales in the top of the first, Haeger set down the next 14 Aggies -- the only ones she faced -- as UF's national player of the year candidate improved her pitching mark to 23-0. She also had an RBI single.
All told, the Gators cranked out 12 hits, all but one of them singles. A&M starter Kayla Ober came into the game having yet to allow an extra base hit in SEC play, but Stewart took care of that streak when she led off UF's first by blasting a triple off the wall in centerfield. The Gators erased an early deficit for the third straight game by plating three runs in the first and leaving matters to Haeger's right arm. She finished with seven strikeouts and no walks in her five-inning one-hitter.
Pretty good senior weekend, but don't confuse it for a senior send-off. After UF ends the regular season with a series at Missouri next weekend, there's the SEC Tournament at Baton Rouge, La., and then the NCAA Tournament.
These elder Gators are far from finished with making memories at Pressly Stadium.
“I don't think it's going to hit me until I'm done,” Haeger said of her three-day senior celebration. “We still have a really long last part of the season, hopefully.”
More like definitely.
