Pressly Stadium's Greatest Moment Comes on Final Swing

Freshman Jordan Matthews touches home plate after a stirring walk-off homer that sent the Gators to the Women's College World Series.

Pressly Stadium's Greatest Moment Comes on Final Swing

Saturday, May 26, 2018 | Softball, Chris Harry

Freshman Jordan Matthews smashed a walk-off three-run homer to beat Texas A&M Saturday and send the Gators to the Women's College World Series.

By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The last swing at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium, as we know it, won't soon be forgotten.

Neither will the freshman who took it.

The Florida Gators trailed by a run. They were down to their last out. Their last strike. Jordan Matthews had fouled off three pitches to stay alive. This was the same Matthews who went through a six-week midseason tailspin when her average fell .093 points (from .347 to .254) over a 16-game run in going 5-for-45. Matthews was in the batter's box, with two on and two out in the bottom of the seventh inning Saturday against Texas A&M in a Game 3 of the NCAA Tournament Super Regional.

What happened next, in UF coach Tim Walton's post-game words, was a "holy (___) moment."

"Just trying to keep it simple," said Matthews, who came to the plate with the tying run at second, the winning run at first, and the goal of just making contact and get the runner in scoring position home. "Not do anything too big."

On the latter objective, she failed — how should we say this? — spectacularly.

Jordan Matthews watches her seventh-inning home run soar out of the yard. (Photo: Tim Casey/UAA Communications)

Matthews crushed Trinity Harrington's 2-2 pitch over the left-center field fence, and off the Pressly Stadium scoreboard, for the most dramatic and meaningful walk-off moment in Florida softball history since Ali Gardiner's walk-off grand slam against Alabama put the Gators in the 2009 Women's College World Series title round.

This one merely sent the Gators back to Oklahoma City for the ninth time in 11 seasons.

Matthews didn't know the ball cleared the fence until she was halfway to second base. She couldn't recall anything about her home-run trot, not even the moment she touched home plate.

The dog pile, though, was epic.

"I want to feel it again," she said. "In OKC."

Matthews, who went 3-for-4 in the game, gave her team that chance, but only after a roller-coaster of emotions swirled from one dugout to the next.

A half-inning earlier, the UF home crowd was rocking as its team took the field for the Aggies' final at-bat with a 2-1 lead, and upped the energy a notch (and then another) when Aleshia Ocasio, on in relief of struggling starter Kelly Barnhill, struck out the first two hitters. A&M was down to its last out, but Sarah Hudek kept her team alive with a sharp single to right field.

On came Tori Vidales.

Flashback: Less than 24 hours earlier, Vidales stepped to the plate against Ocasio with her team down two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, only to greet the UF senior with a towering home run over the center field fence that gave the Aggies the lead and, eventually, a stunning 5-4 win.

Walton and his staff had talked about this very scenario — Ocasio vs. Vidales — repeating itself and decided before the game they were not going to let a rematch happen again. Ocasio had relieved Barnhill, who was knocked around hard for a career-high eight hits, though only gave up one run. Barnhill, though, was the better matchup against the power-hitting Vidales and her 13 homers on the season.

"We felt Kelly could keep it in the ballpark. I don't know if we were going to get [Vidales] out, but we weren't going to let her hit it over the fence. We felt [Ocasio] was a little more susceptible to that," Walton explained later. "We talked about it. We had everything ready to go. I just didn't act on it. My fault."

He doesn't know why he didn't act, but you better believe Walton will go with his gut (and pregame plan) next time.

Vidales absolutely mashed a two-run homer to almost the identical spot as Friday night to push the Aggies ahead 3-2 and turn Pressly field into a mortuary. Temporarily, as it turned out.

In the bottom of the seventh, Amanda Lorenz and Kayli Kvistad sandwiched walks around an out. Up came Janell Wheaton, who was 5-for-7 with four RBI in the series to that point. She struck out looking.

Matthews, a .288 hitter with just four homers, was on deck.

"What emotions … and not just that inning, but the whole weekend," Wheaton said of a best-of-three series that was back-and-forth throughout the three games, and whose career was thisclose to ending in frustration on her home field. "But that's why you have a lineup. To pass the bat along."

Senior to a freshman. Anxiety to jubilance.

And in the other dugout?

"One moment, you're on top of the world," A&M coach Jo Evans said. "The next, it comes crashing down. Tough to stomach. Tough to swallow."

The 2018 UF team poses with the freshly posted "2018" (that went up in a matter of minutes), signaling another year the Gators are headed to the WCWS. (Photo: Tim Casey/UAA Communications)

In a matter of a minutes, even while the Gators were dousing Matthews with a cold-water Gatorade-cooler bath, the wall in left field was adding "2018" to the list of WCWS series seasons. Kudos to the operations folks, who now will turn their focus to an $11 million renovation of Pressly Stadium that will make the outdated facility one of the state-of-the-art parks in the country. Demolition starts next month.

Actually, it started Saturday at about 7:40 p.m., when Matthews' homer banged against the scoreboard. It's a wonder there weren't explosions and sparks, ala Roy Hobbs. It was that kind of night, that kind of send-off for the home team.

"Storybook ending," Wheaton said.

Added Walton: "All you can say, "is 'wow,' "

Three fitting letters, to be sure.

Here's three more: OKC.