Smoother-swinging Kvistad sets tone in Super Game 1 win
Saturday, May 23, 2015 | Softball, Chris Harry
Freshman Kayli Kvistad blasts a first-inning, three-run double Saturday that set the tone for a 7-0 win in Game 1 of UF's Super Regional series against Kentucky at Pressly Stadium.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Nearly 40 games into her collegiate career, Florida's big-swinging freshman first baseman Kayli Kvistad was hitting .319 and already had six games with at least three RBI.
But then came the next 17 games, when Kvistad went into a 2-for-29 tailspin, with her average dipping to .242.
So into the cages she went with her coaches, who happened to be armed a few gadgets. Coach Tim Walton could sense Kvistad was stepping to the plate and trying to murder the ball, instead of putting a good, clean swing on it. Using a device that measures bat speed, Walton showed his rookie that her hardest swings -- get this -- were actually 5 to 7 mph slower than her smooth and balanced ones.
“You can tell them all you want,” Walton said earlier this week in addressing his hands-on work with Kvistad. “But when you show them with a little bit of technology, it makes a big difference.”
It did Saturday in NCAA Super Regional play.
Kvistad stepped to the plate in the bottom of the first inning against Kentucky, after both senior sluggers Lauren Haeger and Bailey Castro had struck out with runners at second and third. After Taylore Fuller was plunked on the wrist by Wildcats pitcher Kelsey Nunley, the bases were loaded for a Kvistad; she of just two hits in the last 42 days and none over the last nine games. 
That's when Kvistad (right) laid a textbook swing on a 2-2 pitch from one of the toughest, most battle-tested pitchers in the Southeastern Conference, lacing a line drive over UK's Breanne Ray in right field for a bases-clearing double.
Let's hear it for technology.
“I worry about my next at-bat and not about what's happened in the past,” she said.
Good thing. Kvistad's teammates were certainly fired up on her behalf, as her three RBI made for a big inning and paved the way for a 7-0 win in Game 1 of the best-of-three Super Regional. Haeger, one of three finalists for NCAA Player of the Year, pitched a two-hit shutout to run her record to a dazzling 27-1 and also hit a solo home run. Kirsti Merritt had a two-run shot that broke a homerless streak for the junior center fielder that dated to March 27.
The Gators (54-6) have now won all four of their NCAA Tournament games by shutout (Haeger with three of them) and now stand 14-1 collectively in NCAA play the last two seasons, with opponents going scoreless in 12 of them.
But Saturday's three extra base hits nearly matched the four UF tallied in winnings its three regional games last week and that certainly put a smile on Walton's face.
Especially after Kvistad got things going.
“I was so happy to see her step up like that,” Haeger said.
When the Gators jump on a team 4-0 in the first, they're going to be very difficult to beat, given their pitching and defense.
“It was about setting the tone early,” Walton said. “A freshman, getting her first postseason hit and RBI -- and none bigger than that. We really had to have that, especially against Kelsey Nunley.”
That's because after the first, Nunley set down Florida's next 10 hitters, before giving way Meagan Prince, who set down the three Gators she faced, before giving way to Erin Rethlake, who faced three UF hitters and was rocked by Merritt and company for three runs before Nunley was summoned back to the circle down 7-0.
But really, the damage was done much earlier.
“That was a tough first inning,” said Kentucky coach Rachel Lawson, who along with the Wildcats (32-25) thought she'd gotten out of the inning at 1-0 on a groundout by Kvistad, but the home plate umpire ruled the ball hit the batter's foot for a foul. “That [hit] really put us in a hole. [Fall behind like] that against Haeger, arguably the best player in college softball, it's going to be a tough day.”
The goal for the Gators, of course, is to make Sunday the really tough day for the Cats; as in elimination day. UF will have two games to win one, with the survivor advancing to Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City. Florida has gone seven of the last eight years.
Kvistad is one of several Gators, obviously, who has yet to get there. On Saturday, she not only looked like she wanted to get there, but like she belonged there.
“She looked very settled and comfortable,” Walton said.
UF is 13-1 all-time in home Super Regional games, so maybe she's settling in with the rest of them.
