Ocasio silences Rattlers bats, but Gators need more noise from theirs
Saturday, May 16, 2015 | Softball, Chris Harry
UF coach Tim Walton is looking for someone other than Kelsey Stewart (right) to start chipping in with some big hits. Stewart had a triple -- one of just two extra-base hits for the top-ranked Gators -- to lead off Florida's first inning in Friday night's 6-0 defeat of Florida A&M in opening-round NCAA Tournament play.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Taylor Schwarz had just popped to first base to end the fifth inning Friday night, but her host Florida Gators were still shutting out Florida A&M in first-round play of the NCAA Tournament.
The Rattlers, in fact, had yet to register a hit.
In the FAMU dugout, that's when outfielder Amanda Weaver gathered her team and asked a question.
“Do you understand what just happened?”
They didn't, but Weaver, the senior, was delighted to enlighten them. The last four times the Rattlers had faced the Gators -- three of those with Weaver in the lineup -- UF won 12-0 in a run-rule shortened five innings, 20-2 in five innings, 9-0 in five innings and by an 8-0 count in the NCAA Tournament in five innings just last year.
But this game was going to sixth inning ... and actually made it to the seventh.
Top-seeded UF went on to shut out FAMU 6-0 behind a masterful one-hitter by freshman Aleshia Ocasio, who tied a school record with 17 strikeouts. The first hit she allowed came with two outs in the seventh -- a single down the right-field line by none other than Weaver -- in her debut NCAA game.
She was terrific.
But on a night when most filed into Pressly Stadium thinking they'd see a fireworks show crammed into five innings, the Gators (51-6) managed just eight hits and only two for extra bases. Two-time All-America second baseman Kelsey Stewart led off the UF first with a triple and helped stake Florida to a 2-0 lead, but after that the best the Gators could do was a run each in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth.
Truth be told, Stewart is the lone Gator hitting with any consistency of late, with the team having scored just one run its Southeastern Conference Tournament semifinal loss to Tennessee and only two in a regular-season ending defeat at Missouri. Yes, the Gators did pound South Carolina 10-1 to open SEC Tourney play, but of their nine hits Stewart had four (and two of the three for extra bases).
Something is missing from this team right now and the reason may be as simple as going seven days since the last game.
“Offensively, we did what we needed to do,” UF coach Tim Walton said. “We left some runners in scoring position, had some throw-away at-bats, but we hadn't played in a week.”
UF will face a pretty decent Hofstra (38-12-1) team in Saturday's winner's bracket game, so it's time to liven things up at the plate. Walton was pretty specific about where he'd prefer the punch, too.
“I'd like to see the Kirsti Merritts, the Bailey Castros, Lauren Haegers and Taylore Fullers, just for them to be RBI-getters,” Walton said of his best offensive, run-producing hitters not named Stewart. “Get out there and drive balls in the gap. That's what they're good at.”
Haeger, the SEC's career home run leader, is hitless in her last 14 at-bats. She got an RBI Friday, but on a deep groundout between second and short, with Merritt barreling all the way around from second to score.
That's not the kind of quality at-bat Walton is looking for right now.
“It's OK to strike out every now and then with runners in scoring psotion. No problem,” he said. “But we don't need [Haeger] getting singles and moving runners along when we need RBIs. She knows that. She's an RBI-getter. That's what we're looking for.”
It's a search that's been going on for two weeks. In the last four games, the combination of Merritt, Castro, Haeger and Fuller has gone a collective 4-for-34 (that's an average of .118).
The Gators (especially those Gators) know those numbers need to improve this weekend.
Maybe Friday was just a night to get back to taking live cuts against real-life opposition. NCAA opposition, no less.
“It was about really getting out the kinks,” Stewart said. “Making sure we made good contact, not striking out and being on plane with the ball. We still produced.”
Enough to win fairly easily. Enough to advance, which is the only object this time of year, no matter the foe.
And even if it takes all seven innings.
