GAINESVILLE, Fla. — After host, top-seeded and No. 1-ranked Florida batted around in the third inning, Alabama State coach Chris Steiner-Wilcoxson summoned her entire team, bench players and all, for a huddle on the first-base line. She went after them.
The Hornets, barely halfway through their inaugural NCAA Tournament, were looking very much the part of a regional rookie.
"I know it was our first time, but everybody seemed so tense, so tight," Steiner-Wilcoxson explained later. "You can't play scared at this level."
Added ASU pitcher Charlene Castro: "I think we were intimidated when we shouldn't have been."
The Gators, two-time defending national champions, can have that effect on opponents. Especially one coming in at the bottom of the 64-tournament field.
UF sent 12 batters to the plate in that third inning, scoring nine runs on seven hits to blow open a scoreless game on the way to an 11-0 rout Friday before an enthusiastic home crowd. For the Gators (54-5), it marked the 10th straight regional victory, dating to the 2013 season, as well as the eighth consecutive shutout.
Intimidation lives at Pressly Stadium, especially in May.
"I think anytime you come in to face No. 1, whether it's us or Michigan or Auburn, it should be intimidating," UF infielder
Kelsey Stewart said. "You're No. 1 for a reason."
The reason this season has mostly been because of what the Gators have done in the circle. Against the Hornets, champions of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, it was sophomore
Aleshia Ocasio throwing four innings of one-hit ball — and lowering her NCAA-best earned-run average to 0.68 — before giving way to freshman
Kelly Barnhill, who promptly struck out the side in her first career NCAA appearance.
Coach
Tim Walton, though, had to be pleased to see his club, after totaling just two runs and nine hits in two Southeastern Conference Tournament games last weekend, get some rhythm at the plate with 12 hits.
"It's always fun when you're stringing hits together, especially when it's not just one or a couple people," said junior outfielder
Nicole DeWitt, who struck a bases-loaded triple in the fat third inning. "Everyone was getting hits."
Eight of UF's nine starters collected at least one base hit. Stewart had two herself in the run-away third inning, which Walton joked made up for a game earlier this year when Stewart had two
outs in the same inning. Florida will try to carry its offensive rhythm into Saturday's noon date against UCF (37-2), the other winner (1-0 over Florida Atlantic) in first-day action.
"I thought they came in with a good game plan, good pace about them, good confidence at the plate and also balance," Walton said. "Not a lot of off-balance swings."
Just an off-balance scoreboard.
Last year, the Gators opened defense of their first NCAA softball crown by defeating Florida A&M 6-0 in the first round behind 17 strikeouts from Ocasio, then a freshman in her NCAA debut. The year before, as UF began what would be a march to that first national crown, freshman
Delanie Gourley made her NCAA debut, also against the Rattlers, with a no-hitter.
Aggregate score from NCAA openers the last three years: Florida 25, Opponent 0.
"Overall, just very pleased," Walton said. "Every time you start a new postseason you don't know exactly what you're going to get, especially with new players. But I thought we came out and played a lot like ourselves."
Translation: Intimidation.
