Florida begins its season next week at the USF Wilson-DeMarini Tournament
By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Kelsey Stewart recalls those fall days as a Florida freshman when the official start to her collegiate softball career was still months away. The Gators, coming off their first season in five years without a trip to the Women's College World Series, were knee-deep in the brutal 6 a.m. offseason conditioning phase.
And UF's seniors, Ensley Gammel and Kelsey Horton, were foot-deep in the back sides of the team's rookies. Kelsey Stewart was the 2015 SEC Player Year. (Tim Casey/UAA)"I just remember Ensley, especially, being in our butts the whole time," said Stewart, now a senior. "None of us wanted to run next to her. We'd be like, 'You do it! No, you do it!' And we'd be scared to death to be late, so we'd get here 20 minutes early. They set the standard for us and now that's just a product of how we operate around here."
With that standard comes the highest of expectations and in 2012 those expectations were not met. It was up to the 2013 seniors to hold the players accountable to touch the sky-high bar set annually by Coach Tim Walton.
So imagine what Stewart and her senior classmates — now armed with back-to-back NCAA titles — are staring at on the expectation front in the run-up to the 2016 campaign. Stewart, the first-team All-American and 2015 Southeastern Conference Player of the Year, along with Taylore Fuller, Kirsti Merritt, Aubree Munro and Taylor Schwarz are the elders of a squad that will start the season No. 1 and seek to join UCLA (1988-90) as the only programs to win three straight national titles.
Florida opens the season Feb. 12 as part of the USF Wilson-DeMarini Tournament, an event that includes a date against No. 2 Michigan, which UF defeated in the WCWS best-of-three championship series last June.
The chase for a three-peat is on.
"When you're a highly successful program, it's about blending of competitive spirits and friendships, and getting the younger players to buy into the legacies left from class to class," Walton said. "The seniors to freshmen are such a big age difference, so there's a meshing period you have to go through. Our older players have been very welcoming from the beginning, but with that welcoming come expectations that you have to bring it every day."
Every. Day.
"I wouldn't say there's a blueprint [for winning], but there's definitely a standard," said Munro, who as catcher and field general the last three years has been the overseer of one of the best defenses and pitching staffs in the nation. "The players who have been here, we all know that standard, so I think it's easier for the new people to kind of fall in line and figure it out."
With eight players on the roster who have been part of a combined 115-19 record the last two years — including a 19-2 rampage through two NCAA tournaments on the way to a pair of championships — the Gators are loaded with veterans who have been in pressure-packed situations. Knowing how to win won't be a problem.
Replacing softball's version of Babe Ruth could be another matter.
Gone is Lauren Haeger, the 2015 national player of the year and WCWS most valuable player who became the first player in the collegiate softball history to win at least 70 games as a pitcher (73) and also hit 70 home runs (71). Haeger's big bat (.326 career average) and reliable arm (32-2 last season, with a 1.23 ERA) were there for Walton the last four years.
"We're going to miss that a lot," Walton said. "Her ability to change the game? We just don't have that presence of someone you can count on every single day offensively; not on that level. So we'll have to get two or three players to bring their productivity up. We have plenty of athletes capable of doing that, but not of that caliber."
Walton, though, is confident the Gators will be able to score in a bunch of different ways. They still have Stewart, who will switch from second base to shortstop, at the top of the order, where she's a .417 career hitter and the program's all-time hits leader (293). Senior centerfielder Kirsti Merritt is coming off a career-best season in average (.325), slugging (.568) and on-base percentage (.498). Third baseman Taylore Fuller was second to Haeger in RBI last season (56) and ranks third in NCAA history with eight grand slams. Sophomore utility player Nicole DeWitt figures to make a big jump from a freshman season when she ranked third on the team in average (.331). Freshman outfielder Amanda Lorenz was a career .592 hitter with 39 homers and 126 RBI at Moorpark (Calif.) High, and may eventually end up in that No. 3 or 4 hole that Haeger occupied for four years.
Then come the pitchers.
In 2014, senior Hannah Rogers steamrolled the Gators to the national title with a near-flawless run through NCAA play. This this time last year everyone was asking, 'How do you replace Hannah?" The answer turned out to be Haeger, who took her game in the circle to another level.
Now what?
UF returns sophomore right-hander Aleshia Ocasio (18-3, 2.58 ERA) and junior lefty Delanie Gourley (10-2, 2.73), both of whom pitched big innings last season, including at Oklahoma City. But by the time the SEC season rolls around, Florida's Friday night starter just might be right-handed freshman Kelly Barnhill, the Marietta, Ga., flamethrower who could be the best pitching prospect in school history.
Barnhill (pictured left) threw 22 no-hitters during her high school career, including one in the Georgia Class 6A state title game and another when she struck out all 21 batters she faced. She's already been selected for the 2016 U.S. National Team, making her the second-youngest player ever chosen.
"She's good. She's really, really good," Munro, who obviously knows good when she sees it having been the battery mate for both Rogers and Haeger. "We've had mostly seniors and juniors the last couple years, but this is a younger staff. [Barnhill] is aggressive, but it's my job to get her to think more and help her learn the game. Hannah helped me learn when I came in, but the roles have kind of reversed. I've learned how to help young pitchers."
The older Gators are all about explaining the standard. Usually by their actions.
It was just a couple months ago Lorenz was learning how to run at 6 in the morning alongside Stewart and company. Now, the seniors will teach her how to win.
"I came from a very competitive travel organization and I was prepared to push myself way behind my limits — but I've done things here I never thought I could have done," Lorenz said. "Now that we're here, it's up to us to set ourselves apart and help the program be successful. This is Florida. This is the big show."
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UF returns sophomore right-hander Aleshia Ocasio (18-3, 2.58 ERA) and junior lefty Delanie Gourley (10-2, 2.73), both of whom pitched big innings last season, including at Oklahoma City. But by the time the SEC season rolls around, Florida's Friday night starter just might be right-handed freshman Kelly Barnhill, the Marietta, Ga., flamethrower who could be the best pitching prospect in school history. 
