Florida 5, Texas A&M 4 (Instant Breakdown)

Florida 5, Texas A&M 4 (Instant Breakdown)

Thursday, May 24, 2018 | Softball, Chris Harry

A quick wrap of Thursday night's Super Region opener.

By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer

NCAA SUPER REGION GAME 1
No. 4 FLORIDA 5, No. 14 TEXAS A&M 4

WHAT HAPPENED: Janell Wheaton drew a two-out bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the seventh inning to cap a dramatic comeback by the Gators, the No. 2 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, who rallied from two runs down to walk off the Aggies in Game 1 of their best-of-three Super Region series at Pressly Stadium. UF entered its final at-bat trailing 4-2, until 2018 Southeastern Conference Player of the Year Amanda Lorenz cut the lead in half with a one-out home run to right. After Nicole DeWitt grounded out, Kayli Kvistad drew a two-out walk and the next two UF batters, Jordan Matthews and Jaimie Hoover, reached on errors by A&M shortstop Kristen Cuyos, both coming on routine plays. Up came Aleshia Ocasio, of last week's regional no-hitter fame, whose bases-loaded walk tied the game at 4-all and brought on Wheaton, still with the bases juiced. The Aggies pulled starting pitcher Trinity Harrington and went to reliever Payton McBride. Wheaton worked the count full and looked at a low and outside pitch that sent the home crowd into a tizzy. UF trailed 3-0 early, as ace pitcher Kelly Barnhill didn't have her best stuff, but even when down 4-1 after a solo homer by Kaitlyn Alderink in the fourth, the Gators proved undeterred, chopped away, and won the game with just five hits and those three runs in the seventh.

PLAY OF THE GAME: It looked over for UF when Matthews hit a soft grounder to Alderink, the A&M second baseman, who fielded the play cleanly and made a soft flip to Cuyos covering the bag. Cuyos, though, bobbled the ball as she stumbled over the base and Matthews was safe. The next batter, Hoover, hit a soft grounder to Cuyos, but the ball inched through her legs and runners were safe all the way around. The next two batters, Ocasio and Wheaton, walked with the bases loaded.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Lorenz gave her teammates hope with that one-out shot to make it a one-run game. The rally likely does not happen without it. Lorenz went 3-for-3 on the night, including an RBI-double in the third.

STAGGERING STATISTIC: The game marked just the seventh time this season the Gators had given up at least four runs in a game. They're now 2-5 when doing so.

UP NEXT: Florida (54-8) needs to win just one of its next two games to head to the Women's College World Series for the ninth time in the last 11 seasons, with the next crack at A&M (43-17) scheduled for Friday at 7 p.m., weather pending, of course. Game was delayed twice by severe weather in the area.