Kirsti Merritt watches helplessly as Kaylee Puailoa's homer in the bottom of the seventh clears the center field wall at Pressly Stadium.
Dawg ... Gone: Georgia Sweeps Gators From Super Regional
Friday, May 27, 2016 | Softball, Chris Harry
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Pinch-hitter Kaylee Puailoa's walk-off homer ended UF's two-year run as NCAA champion
By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Super Regional pitted No. 1 seed Florida, the nation's best pitching and defensive team, against 16th-seeded Georgia, the best hitting team in the Southeastern Conference. Normally, that's a matchup Tim Walton would savor. After all, it's hard to to lose when the other team doesn't score, right?
But the Bulldogs proved to be a far more well-rounded team than their paper statistics suggested.
As proof, they're the ones going to Oklahoma City.
Pinch-hitter Kaylee Puailoa smashed a two-run, two-out home run off UF ace Aleshia Ocasio in the bottom of the seventh Friday night to give Georgia a 3-2 victory that ended the season of the positively shellshocked and two-time defending NCAA champion Gators, along with the stunned and bummed sellout crowd at Pressly Stadium.
Florida not only had never lost in a home Super Regional, but the Gators became the first No. 1 overall NCAA Tournament seed to be eliminated in the Super round since 2010 and the first in tournament history to be swept in the best-of-three Super format.
"They played well and deserved to come out as champion," Walton said.
The Bulldogs (45-18) finished eighth in the SEC standings with a 12-12 record, but they led the nation's toughest league in batting average (.352). The Gators (56-7), meanwhile, led the nation in both team ERA (.086) and fielding percentage (.985) coming into the series, yet it was Georgia ace Chelsea Wilkinson who hurled a 3-0, three-hit shutout Thursday night to out-duel UF's Delanie Gourley and Wilkinson again in the circle Friday besting Aleshia Ocasio, the nation's leader in ERA. Ocasio, who gave up four homers all season, served up a pair Friday; the first to senior catcher Katie Browne in the second inning and the game-winner to Pualioa, who was facing an 0-2 count.
Wilkinson, meanwhile, gave up just two runs on five hits, none for extra bases, and managed to keep a potentially big-number fifth inning for UF in check, when the Gators had the bases loaded and just one out. The two runs Florida scored in that fifth were its lone runs of a series during which the Gators team average was .145, including 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position.
"We had to be better than that," Walton said.
Georgia was better there and everywhere else.
"We do work hard offensively, but it does take all facets of the game," Georgia coach Lu Harris-Champer said. "You want to have pitching and defense, but when get the other [half] -- offense -- then good things happen."
In this case, the program's third trip to the Women's College World Series happened.
"Sometimes two runs are enough, but against a team like Georgia it may not be," a tearful Aubree Munro said after the senior catcher played her final game in a UF uniform. "They're such a good hitting team that [even after taking a 2-1 lead] we didn't get to a place where we were comfortable."
Florida senior catcher/stalwart Aubree Munro walks off the UF softball diamond for the final time following Georgia's clinching in Super Regional play Friday night.
Actually, that may have been the case from the outset, given the bizarre look of the first inning. UF shortstop Alex Voss booted a sure-fire double-play ball and two batters later Alyssa DiCarlo skied a high pop-up that no UF defender called for. The ball caromed off the gloves of Munro and third baseman Taylore Fuller into foul territory, with a Georgia assistant arguing the ball should have been called fair and eventually getting tossed from the game. Hugo followed with a single that loaded the bases. Ocasio, though, worked out of the jam, but there was an uneasy feeling in the ballpark.
In the Georgia second, Browne popped another sky-high ball above the infield — and again no UF defender called for it. The ball bounced near the third-base line and spun foul.
Given a second chance, Browne sent the next pitch over the left field fence.
More uneasiness.
Then came the UF fifth and most alive the stadium was either night. Wilkinson, after base hits by Ocasio and Nicole DeWitt, hit back-to-back batters. The first loaded the bases, the second forced in a run. Still loaded, the Gators had a chance to blow the game open, but Wilkinson got UF's best hitter, freshman Amanda Lorenz, to ground to first (scoring DeWitt for the 2-1 lead) and then got Kelsey Stewart to ground to short.
"They could have done a lot more damage there," Wilkinson said.
Ocasio actually put down 16 straight Georgia hitters until Maeve McGuire, who went 3-for-3 Thursday, reached on an infield single when Voss threw high and pulled first baseman Taylor Schwarz off the bag. Ocasio got Browne to line out to short. Then Puailoa stepped in to pinch-hit for Lacy Sumerlin. She had a .331 average — as a backup. She was down two strikes and the crowd was on its feet when Ocasio spun it home.
"Pretty sure it was a rise ball," Puailoa said. "And pretty sure it was right down the middle."
As soon as it left the ballpark, everyone was sure Florida's incredible ride of the last three seasons was over.
