Elite Prospect, Clutch Performer, Perfect Teammate

Friday, May 5

Gainesville, Fla.

7 PM

Florida Gators

North Texas

Delanie Gourley was the winning pitcher in Florida's 5-2 victory over Alabama in the 2014 Women's College World Series that clinched the Gators' first NCAA title.

Elite Prospect, Clutch Performer, Perfect Teammate

Friday, May 5, 2017 | Softball, Chris Harry

Delanie Gourley's fabulous pitching numbers are rivaled only by her selfless, team-first attitude.

By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — To truly appreciate that Delanie Gourley's left arm has been spinning strikeouts, victories and championships for the University of Florida the last four seasons, it helps to understand the confluence of road blocks that conspired against her becoming a Gator in the first place.

Like distance, for example. Gourley grew up in Lakeside, Calif. It was going to take someone and someplace very special (and maybe a pair of vice grips) to pull her that far from her mother. Like communication. The very first email exchange between the two parties went accidentally unanswered (by UF, in fact) for weeks. Like familiarity. Let's just say Gourley had history with a certain collegiate softball power on the west coast. Her Twitter handle was @DelanieUCLA. There was even the matter of a uniform number. She'd worn 13 her entire life and made it known she wanted to wear it in college, too. That digit, however, was already on the back of Florida's best player.

But for UF coach and recruiting raider Tim Walton, barriers often are reduced to inconvenient little details, all of which can be worked out. That's why Gourley, who ranks among the program's all-time top 10 in every meaningful pitching category, will take a bow alongside her Florida classmates for senior weekend when the No. 1 Gators (48-5) play their final regular-season home series against North Texas (24-27), starting Friday night at Pressly Stadium.

"The time has just flown by," Gourley said. "If I could, I'd totally do it all over again."

In the fall of 2013, Gourley was dropped into a bullpen crowded with All-Americans and since managed to carve out an indelible place in Florida history, having been summoned cold off the bench -- first as a freshman, then again as a sophomore -- into some of the most pressure-packed softball of the Gators' back-to-back NCAA title seasons of 2014-15.

All she did was deliver.

"We all knew Delanie had a chance to be one of the most special pitchers anyone had ever had, but I felt — and I told people this at the time — that she was the missing piece to what we needed to win a national championship," Walton said. "We're not wearing those rings without her."

CHARTING THE GATORS
A look at where senior lefty Delanie Gourley, who came to the Gators following a record-shattering prep career in California, stacks up statistically on the all-time UF charts in the program's major pitching categories (with still more work to do).

Category	Statistic	All-Time Rank
ERA	1.48	6th
Opponent Batting Average	.164	2nd
Strikeouts Per 7 Innings	9.40	2nd
Winning Percentage	.855	7th
Wins	59	8th
Saves	14	2nd
Appearances	113	9th
Shutouts	27	Tied-4th
Walks	149	9th
Strikeouts	621	5th

And to think it all began with an unopened email that was sent to the Florida softball office by Gourley, who was in the early stages of her utter assault on California high school hitters. After years of attending UCLA camps and rooting for the Bruins, on a whim Gourley went to her mother, Denise, and floored her with the idea of reaching out 2,400 miles to the Gators.

Wasn't easy leaving the Gourley family back in California, especially mother Denise (left).

Mom's reaction?

Who?

"She'd been watching them on TV and just liked them — and liked Coach Walton," recalled Denise Gourley. "She thought all the girls were beautiful, thought the uniforms were cool and just liked everything about them."

So off went that email, which landed in the mail box of Brittany Souilliard, UF's softball coordinator, who happened to be on maternity leave. There it sat, getting buried, what with Walton on Christmas break. When things finally got back to order in the office, Walton got the email, did some research and answered back in a way the Gourleys instantly noticed was different.

"I was one of the few that actually spelled her name right," Walton said.

With an "ie" at the end, not a "y."

As in "Lanie."

That's the name the Gourley family attached to her and it stuck during a childhood and athletic career that started with T-ball at the age of four and found little Lanie on an under-8 all-star team at the age of six. At the time, she was a catcher. "She loved the dirt and the grime," according to her mother, but eventually stepped up when her club team, the Lakeside Lady Bugs, needed a pitcher.

"She had zero control, but she threw it extremely hard for her age and size," Denise said. "She either hit [the batters] or walked them at first, so they were usually pretty scared up there. Eventually, though, she started figuring it out."

Clearly.

Little Lanie as a catcher and pitcher for the Lakeside (Calif.) Lady Bugs Under-8 squad.

Joe Cota, coach at Lakeside El Capitan High, always reserved judgment when he heard glowing previews of players headed his way. Yes, he'd heard stuff about Delanie Gourley's stuff, but it wasn't until pitchers and catchers reported her freshman year that Cota learned the hype was real this time.

It was raining that day and Cota took his team into the wrestling room for practice. After some warmups, Cota paired Gourley with a catcher who was a tad intimidated after seeing the little lefty get loose.

"Her first pitch went over the catcher's head and almost stuck in the wall," Cota said. "I looked at the other coach and said, 'Um, I think we may have something here.' "

They did. Gourley would set a California Interscholastic Federation record with 1,352 strikeouts, was twice named the state's Gatorade Player of the Year and led El Capitan to a state championship.

She was just as ferocious on the club circuit.

What was it like facing her?

"Failure," said UF senior outfielder Justin McLean, once an AAU rival and now her best friend on the team. "I'd be like, 'OK, she's coming back door,' but it didn't matter. Out, out, out. It was like the best I could ever do was hit it right back to her. I'd be running down the [first base] line and looking at her like, "Am I ever going to get a hit against you?' Probably not, so it was a good thing we became college teammates."

Everybody wanted Gourley, but only the best out west — UCLA, Washington, Arizona, Stanford (with a sprinkle of interest directed toward Notre Dame) — got second looks. Then came that email and a subsequent unofficial visit to Gainesville that basically took Gourley's breath away. The campus. The college-town atmosphere. Gator logos everywhere. The lure of playing in the Southeastern Conference.

Gourley's mother was in the stands when Walton invited his prospect onto the field, pointed to the pitcher's circle and said, "Try it on." When Delanie stepped onto the rubber, the stadium lights came on and — even from the bleachers — Denise sensed her daughter's heart start pumping orange and blue blood.

As for that No. 13? The one being worn by a certain ace pitcher named Hannah Rogers?

"Coach Walton suggested No. 33 because that was the number he wore in college [at Oklahoma] and the one he was wearing when he won as a pitcher in the national championship game," Gourley said. "It worked for him, so he thought it would work for me. Sounded good at the time."

When the Gourleys got back to the hotel, the gushing went next level.

"I told her to relax, take it all in and think about it more when we got home," Denise said. "But I knew."

So Gourley committed to Florida as a prep sophomore and two years later arrived with as much fanfare as any UF pitching prospect ever. Not only was she Walton's first lefty, but she had a changeup that weakened hitters' knees. Unfortunately for Gourley, Florida also had loaded staff in place with Rogers, the senior, and junior Lauren Haeger. She got her share of starts during the '14 regular season, but it was during that rookie year she found a comfort zone with her teammates. And vice versa.

One of Gourley's fondest freshman memories is of an impromptu workout, just she and Rogers, on a gorgeous Florida day when they swapped secrets about each other's money pitch; Roger's nasty drop; Gourley's change.

"We put on music, tanning lotion, shorts, sports bras and just went out on the field," she said. "No coaches, just us, working and having fun. It was great."

Gourley was great as a freshman, going 15-1 and throwing a no-hitter at Florida A&M in UF's opening NCAA Tournament game. Then she stood in the dugout for the next 55 innings and watched the red-hot Rogers almost single-handedly lead the Gators to a national championship.

Repeat: almost.

Gourley's work at the Women's College World Series shows three innings, zero earned runs, a win in the 2014 NCAA title-clinching game and save in Game 1 of the championship series. Not bad.

With the Gators up 5-2 in Game 2 of the best-of-three national-championship series against Alabama, Gourley was summoned for relief in the fourth inning with no outs and a runner on a base. The first batter she faced reached on an error. The next walked to load the bases.

None scored.

When Rogers entered in the sixth, Gourley had worked two innings without allowing a run and striking out two. When the Gators dog-piled on Rogers after the final NCAA title-sealing out, Gourley was the winning pitcher.

The 2015 WCWS was practically a carbon copy for Gourley, who stood on the dugout steps for the first 68 innings of NCAA play while Haeger was making history as the team's workhorse. Gourley, who'd gone 10-2 with a 2.13 ERA during the regular season, threw one inning in UF's 11 NCAA games. It happened to be in the seventh inning of Game 1 in the title series against Michigan in Oklahoma City.

Florida led 3-2 when Gourley walked the leadoff hitter, who then advanced to second on a passed ball. The next batter singled to right. First and third, no outs.

Again, none scored.

Haeger pitched all of the next two games, including the title-clinching Game 3.

Meanwhile, Gourley's two appearances in OKC those two seasons showed just three innings of work, but a 0.00 ERA ... and two national championships.

"I would have liked to have played more, of course, but Hannah and Lauren were both amazing," Gourley said. "So why would I be frustrated when we're winning? Instead, I was like, 'Hey, take us to the 'natty,' and just let me help where I can."

And did she ever.

As a junior last season, Gourley went 18-3 with a 0.73 ERA that ranked second in the nation, but the Gators lost in the Super Regional round to Georgia. Now comes the home stretch of her career — along with fellow seniors McLean and outfielder Chelsea Herndon — and all the emotions that will accompany it.

For Gourley, it's easy to point to the impressive statistics and clutch moments, but her coaches and teammates will say those aren't even the best parts of the package. Even after Rogers and Haeger left, Gourley continued to share the circle spotlight with All-America teammates; first with Aleshia Ocasio starting with that 2015 season, then again last season with the arrival of Kelly Barnhill, who may very well be the best pitcher in the country; in time, maybe the best in UF history.

Each time it appeared the Gators' circle spotlight would be Gourley's, another superstar joined the bullpen party.

"But point the camera on Delanie during any game, no matter who's pitching, and you'll see nothing but pure emotion and excitement and cheering from her," McLean said. "That's the kind of person she is and what I think is so cool about her. Delanie came into this year in that [No. 1 starter] role, and while that may have changed over the season, her love for her teammates and desire for this team to win has never changed."

And won't.

"She's a great kid with great intentions," Walton said. "She wants to be great, but she wants her team and her teammates to be great as well. I love that about her."

Everybody does.

So in the coming weeks, know this. The Gators will need Gourley and she'll be ready when they come calling. She always has been.

Unopened emails and all.