Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Florida looks to conclude the 2017 regular season of SEC play this weekend against Tennessee in Knoxville at Sherri Lee Parker Stadium. The first game of the series is scheduled for this Friday at 6 p.m.
 
Friday and Saturday fans can watch the Gators (44-3, 18-2 SEC) and the Volunteers (41-6, 13-4) online via the SEC Network + which is available on WatchESPN.com or the WatchESPN app. The final game of the series will be available on ESPN2.
All Florida softball games this season can be listened to live on WGGG (92.1 FM/1230 AM) & WMOP (100.1 FM/900 AM).
 
The Gators currently sit at the top of the SEC standings and have the opportunity to clinch its third-straight regular season title.
  Notables:

• For the third consecutive week, Kelly Barnhill was tabbed as this week's SEC Pitcher of the Week. Also, junior Kayli Kvistad picked up her first SEC Player of the Week award and the first for the program since 2015 when Kelsey Stewart was a recipient. It's the first time that the Gators have taken both pitcher and player of the week at the same time since Stewart and Lauren Haeger earned both on April 27, 2015. Barnhill's four SEC Pitcher of the Week awards are the most by an UF player in a single season and second most throughout a career as she is tied with Hannah Rodgers and Stephanie Brombacher and behind Stacey Nelson who accumulated six.
• Since 2007, Florida is the winningest NCAA Division I softball program with a total of 609 wins to 106 losses for a staggering 0.851 win percentage. Tennessee, this weekend's opponent, ranks in the top five with a program record of 532-146-1 (.783). Alabama (568-127), Oklahoma (542-121) and Michigan (534-117-1) rank second, third and fourth respectively to round out the top five.
• The Gators hold a 20-2 record against Top 25 competition this season with a combined total of 14 shutouts. Added to the impressive statistic of 14 shutouts is the face that Florida has held an additional six opponents to just one run, so that's 20 out of the 22 opponents that this year's team has held to one run or less.  Offensively, Florida has only been shut out once by a Top 25 opponent.
• Florida currently leads the nation with 29 shutouts on the season, which includes 14 over Top 25 competition. The next closest program is Alabama with 23 shutouts and only an additional three with at least 20 on the season. To put the impressive number in perspective, last year's team produced 27 shutouts during the regular season and four more in post-season play for 31 total shutouts. Also, Kelly Barnhill alone has 10 shutouts this season to her credit which is equal to or better than 253 other Division I programs.
• It's no surprise that the Gators are once again boast one of the nation's best defenses. For the past two years Florida finished the season with top national marks of 0.984 (2016), a program record, and 0.981 (2015). This year's squad has improved from the past two seasons with the nation's leading fielding percentage of 0.986.
• Once again, the Gators have established one of the nation's best pitching staffs. The trio of Kelly Barnhill (0.17 ERA), Aleshia Ocasio (0.86 ERA) and Delanie Gourley (0.94 ERA) all rank inside the Top 10 for the nation's best ERA. The current SEC record for ERA is 0.35 set by Trinity Johnson of South Carolina in 1997 while Stacy Nelson (0.61) set the UF record in 2009.
• Junior Nicole DeWitt has hit a different gear in SEC competition. The crafty second baseman leads the Gators in conference play with a .389 batting average, 21 hits and five doubles while defensively she has recorded 22 putouts and 23 assists without a fielding error.

All-Time Series
Florida holds an all-time lead, 47-25, over Tennessee. UF shutout UT for the first time since March 11, 2012 and blanked the Vols in Gainesville for the first time since the May 6-8, 2011 series.
 
In last year's series, UF allowed just two runs, marking the fewest Florida allowed Tennessee to score in a three-game set since these two schools met in 2009. This was eighth time in school history that Florida completed a three-game sweep of Tennessee. In addition, Florida recorded its first SEC sweep since April 24-26 of last season against Texas A&M.
 
The Gators are looking to seal their successful SEC run with a series sweep against the Vols in Tennessee territory.
  2016 Regular Season Recap
March 18, 2016 | In a matchup of top-25 squads, the No. 1-ranked University of Florida softball team defeated No. 16 Tennessee, 5-0, on Friday night in the first home game of the Gators' Southeastern Conference schedule. Sophomore Aleshia Ocasio (10-1) threw a complete game, two-hit shutout.
 
Florida jumped on Tennessee early with three runs on two hits in the bottom of the first inning.
Seniors Kelsey Stewart and Kirsti Merritt kicked off the inning with a single and a walk to place runners on first and second base with no one out. Freshman Amanda Lorenz followed with her team-leading eighth double of the season, which scored Stewart. After a sacrifice fly plated Merritt and moved Lorenz to third, the rookie came into score on an error by the UT catcher.
 
UF scored its only other runs in the third inning when Aubree Munro recorded an RBI single and Merritt notched an RBI base on balls in front of a season-high crowd of 1,413.
 
# 16 TENNESSEE (21-6 / 3-1) -VS- # 1 FLORIDA (28-1 / 3-1)
 

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
Tennessee	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	1
Florida	3	0	2	0	0	0	X	5	6	0

 
W: Aleshia Ocasio (10-1);  L: M. Moss (6-2)
 
Game Details
DATE | 3/18/2016            START | 7:02 pm              TIME | 2:20       
ATTENDANCE | 1,413     SITE  | Gainesville, Fla. (KSP Stadium)
  March 19, 2016 |Sophomores Nicole DeWitt and Kayli Kvistad drove in all four Florida runs, while freshman Kelly Barnhill earned her 10th win in the circle during Saturday's rain-delayed series-clinching win, as No. 1 Florida downed No. 16 Tennessee, 4-2.
 
With the win, UF continued its streak of not dropping a series against Tennessee in Gainesville since 2007. In addition, Florida has now opened Southeastern Conference play with back-to-back series victories for the first time since 2014.
 
Barnhill (10-0) allowed two runs on four hits and recorded nine strikeouts to go along with just one walk. She was relieved by sophomore Aleshia Ocasio who threw two perfect innings and earned the third save of her season.
 
# 16 TENNESSEE (21-7 / 3-2) -VS- # 1 FLORIDA (29-1 / 4-1)
 

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
Tennessee	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	2	4	1
Florida	2	0	0	0	1	1	X	4	5	0

 
W: Kelly Barnhill (10-0); L: E. Gabriel (11-3)l; S: Aleshia Ocasio (3)
 
Game Details
DATE | 3/19/2016           START | 2:02 pm              TIME | 2:23                       
ATTENDANCE | 1,375     SITE | Gainesville, Fla. (KSP Stadium)
  March 20, 2016 | Senior Kelsey Stewart went 3-for-3 and junior Delanie Gourley picked up her 10th win of 2016 as No. 1 Florida shutout No. 16 Tennessee, 3-0, to sweep its first SEC series of the season. The Gators (30-1/5-1 SEC) swept the Volunteers (21-8/3-3 SEC) for the first time since May 6-8, 2011.
 
After Florida was held scoreless in the first two innings, Stewart took matters into her own hands in the third. The senior led off with a single, stole second base, moved to third on a groundout, and came into score on a passed ball.
 
Junior Delanie Gourley (10-0), who threw seven shutout innings to go along with eight strikeouts, allowed just one  Tennessee base runner to get into scoring position all afternoon.
 
# 16 TENNESSEE (21-8 / 3-3) -VS- # 1 FLORIDA (30-1 / 5-1)

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	R	H	E
Tennessee	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	1
Florida	0	0	1	0	2	0	X	3	5	0

 
W: Delanie Gourley (10-0); L: R. Gaffing (3-2)
 
Game Details
DATE | 3/20/2016            START | 4:02 pm              TIME | 2:09        
ATTENDANCE | 2079      SITE | Gainesville, Fla. (KSP Stadium)