Senior left-hander Delanie Gourley, who went 19-4 with a 0.80 ERA last season, is back as part of UF's latest (and loaded) pitching staff.
Once Again, 'It Starts in the Circle'
Thursday, February 9, 2017 | Softball, Chris Harry
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After leading the nation in team ERA last season, the 2017 Gators' pitching staff looks even deeper.
By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — This time a year ago, Tim Walton went into the season knowing he had the best pitching staff in the country. That's a really good, really confident place from which to start, right? Couldn't blame him, though.
He was returning a junior and sophomore, both of whom had pitched for Southeastern Conference championship teams and thrown meaningful innings in Women's College World Series on the way to a second straight NCAA title. Walton was also welcoming a heralded freshman ranked as the top pitching prospect in the country.
As it turned, the Gators spent the bulk of the season ranked No. 1 in the nation, won the SEC title and led the country in team ERA, only to fall one game shy of a fourth straight trip to Oklahoma City.
UF coach Tim Walton
Fast forward to 2017. That junior, Delanie Gourley, is now a senior. That sophomore, Aleshia Ocasio, is a junior. That freshman, Kelly Barnhill, is a sophomore. And Walton has even added a fourth rising-star arm in lefty freshman Katie Chronister, the 2016 Florida Gatorade Player of the Year, to the mix. How Walton manages this embarrassment of riches — UF's team ERA was 0.93 last season, with Ocasio (0.77) and Gourley (0.80) finishing second and third in the nation, respectively — is a juggling act that should be fun to watch. He'll have high standards for each, but those standards extend to every facet of his club. Always have.
"For us, it's definitely going to start in the circle, but I also want this team to be a very high level, very efficient team," said Walton, whose No. 3 Gators open the season Friday against Illinois State in the first of five weekend games at the USF-hosted Wilson DeMarini Tournament in Tampa. "I keep telling them over and over again, we're not wasting outs."
Translation: With a pitching staff as potentially lethal as this one, opponents aren't going to score a lot of runs, so the Gators' opportunities to score runs and put games away (preferably early) need to be seized upon.
So, what exactly does "wasting outs" mean?
"Whether that means we're not going to bunt, not going to steal or have some throw-away at-bats, I'm not saying that, because we're going to have some of those," he said. "But this is a team that needs to feed off its pitching and maximize every single one of our at-bats. That's the trait I'm trying to teach. Don't be scared."
UF's inconsistency on offense caught up with the Gators in the postseason with a crushing, walk-off loss to SEC rival Georgia in a decisive Game 2 of their home Super Regional. The moment the Bulldogs' homer soared over the center field wall, the phenomenal careers of senior stalwarts like Kelsey Stewart, Kirsti Merritt and Aubree Munro were over. But this season's roster is sprinkled with players who have their hands in some big-stage moments in OKC — like seniors Justine McLean and Chelsea Herndon, and juniors Nicole DeWitt and Kayli Kvistad — and the goal, as always, is to be there again.
"If you don't have that goal, you're playing for nothing," DeWitt said.
The veterans in the clubhouse will foster that mentality, but UF's devoted fanbase is going to get to know some seldom-used underclassmen better this season, as well as be introduced to some new blood.
Like Brooke Clemens, a sophomore catcher who got few chances last season because Munro, one of the greatest defensive players in UF history, was there. Like redshirt freshman Sophia Reynoso, the latest in a long lone of California-bred standouts coaxed across the country by Walton and his staff. Reynoso arrived at UF in the fall of 2015 and was ticketed for the starting shortstop spot (the heir to defensive whiz Katie Medina). Reynoso, though, also arrived with knee injury and opted to rehab it rather than repair it surgically. Instead, she re-injured it late in the fall, sat out the season as a medical redshirt and will make her Gators debut Friday.
Freshman Katie Chronister, who starred at Gainesville High, went 70-8 and struck out 725 batters during her prep career, but also played first base and batted .486 on her way to being named the 2016 Florida Gatorade Player of the Year.
Look for some true freshmen, like catcher Jordan Roberts and utility player Jaimie Hoover, to get good looks, along with Chronister, who starred two miles off campus at Gainesville High as both a hitter and pitcher. How many opportunities Chronister gets in the circle, especially with so many proven arms and innings in front of her, remains to be seen.
"I had a pretty consistent hook last year with our pitching staff," Walton said. "I don't think anything has changed, anything will change. We're still going about business as usual and will continue to take the pulse of where we are on that given day. We've got that kind of pitching staff. That's not to say they're not going to give up some runs or be imperfect on some days, but they're good. They're really good."
And that's a really good, really confident place from which to start.
