BOX SCORE
Gainesville, Fla. – The No. 1-ranked University of Florida softball team won its 16th straight game on Friday night, defeating No. 11 Missouri 7-6 at University Field. Sophomore southpaw Delanie Gourley worked five innings out of the bullpen to earn the win for Florida, which won Game 1 of a Southeastern Conference series for the ninth consecutive time dating back to last season.
The Orange and Blue (48-4, 17-4 SEC) got off to a quick start in the first with four straight singles against Missouri lefty Paige Lowary, including an RBI base hit by Kirsti Merritt that brought home Kelsey Stewart with the game's first run. Merritt was thrown out trying to steal second during Lauren Haeger's at-bat, but the double-steal attempt allowed Nicole DeWitt to score and raise the Gator lead to 2-0.
Missouri hit a solo home run and a two-run shot in the bottom of the first to go in front 3-2. Another solo homer in the second increased the Tiger lead to two runs. Florida responded with three runs in the fourth to take a 5-4 advantage. Taylor Schwarz singled and advanced on a fielding error to lead off the inning, scoring on an Aubree Munro double down the right-field line. Stewart singled two batters later to set up a two-run base hit by DeWitt that put the Gators ahead.
Florida added an insurance run in the fifth. Taylore Fuller led off with a single, advancing to second on a Schwarz flyout and then scoring on Munro's RBI base hit up the middle. Missouri answered with a solo home run in the home half to make the score 6-5. Two singles and a wild pitch led to a game-tying run for the Tigers (37-12, 13-9 SEC) in the sixth.
The Gators won the game in the seventh. Schwarz was hit by a pitch before advancing on a Munro sacrifice and a Missouri throwing error before scoring on Stewart's sacrifice fly to produce the final margin in UF's 7-6 victory.
STARS OF THE GAME
· Nicole DeWitt: The California native has multiple hits in four of her last seven games overall and each of her last three conference games.
· Aubree Munro: The junior was 2-for-3 on the night, driving in a run on both of her hits.
· Kelsey Stewart: The All-American logged her fifth game-winning RBI (previous: 3/5 vs. Michigan) of the year with her seventh-inning sac fly.
NOTABLES
· DeWitt drove in two runs to record her sixth multi-RBI game of the year.
· The freshman also had two base hits to represent her 10 multi-hit contest.
· Munro's double was her third of the 2015 campaign (last: 4/8 at Florida State).
· The junior recorded her second multi-hit game of the year (also: 4/4 vs. South Carolina, Game 2).
· UF's catcher tallied her third multi-RBI contest this season (last: 4/3 vs. South Carolina).
· Haeger two intentional walks, extending her school record to 16.
· The senior notched her 12th multi-hit game with two knocks.
· Gourley earned the win, marking the first time this season Haeger did not get the 'W' in a game she started.
· The Orange and Blue are 23-0 in Haeger's starts this year; the right-hander is 22-0 in those 23 games.
· Stewart posted her team-leading 25th contest with two or more hits.
· Florida's All-America infielder now has 273 career hits, moving to within six of Aja Paculba for the Gator record.
WALTON'S WORDS
On the significance of winning Game 1 of a series:
“It's huge. It's a tone-setter. No game was harder fought than the one we won tonight, that's for sure.”
On getting multi-hit performances from four players:
“That's why you see the number of at-bats we had tonight (29) and the number of runners we left on base (10). That's because we had so many quality at-bats and so many hitters being able to not only get on base, but to also get hits and some very needed RBI.”
On improvements to make in Saturday's Game 2:
“I thought we had a good approach (on Friday), but their hitters are good. I was really impressed with their overall balance and pitch selection, with the ability to hit the ball to all fields that they showed today. We'll have to do a much better job tomorrow pitching-wise, and hopefully we'll continue to swing the bat very well.
— Florida Head Coach Tim Walton
UP NEXT
The UF-MU series continues Saturday with Game 2 at 1 p.m. ET. The contest will air on the SEC Network with Cara Capuano (play-by-play) and Cheri Kempf (analysis) on the call. Florida Sports Talk will have the radio broadcast with Adam Schick (play-by-play) and former Gator All-American Megan Bush (analysis) as the announce team. In addition, a live stats link can be found on the schedule page on GatorZone.com.
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