Gators 2019 Reload Starts With Lorenz, Barnhill

Senior Aleshia Ocasio (right) and her three senior teammates did their final Gator chomp in a UF uniform after Saturday's loss to Oklahoma at the Women's College World Series.

Gators 2019 Reload Starts With Lorenz, Barnhill

Monday, June 4, 2018 | Softball, Chris Harry

UF's stellar senior class will be missed, but the Gators will return eight players who started in a 2018 WCWS game.

By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The question was put to junior outfielder Amanda Lorenz, and even given the circumstances amid the heartbreak of a 2018 season that had just concluded, the Southeastern Conference Player of the Year squared up her response about the outgoing Florida senior class like she had done to so many rise balls during her splendid career.

"Her answer was perfect," UF coach Tim Walton said, "And in perfect order, too."

After collectively extolling the virtues of Aleshia Ocasio, Kayli Kvistad, Nicole DeWitt and Janell Wheaton — "They're competitors, and I just have a thing about teammates that just compete each and every day" — Lorenz remarked on each player individually. She praised Ocasio, the elite athlete. Then Kvistad, whose competitive edge was the spark that lit the team. DeWitt was the game-changer who could do it all. And, finally, she spoke of Wheaton, her youth and longtime travel ball companion from California. Together, they shared the UF dream.

In the moment, her message was as emotionally charged as it was eloquent, making the delivery all the more impressive.

"They may not have their best stuff each and every day, but they'll compete their butt off for you, and do anything for this team and for the person next to them, and that's just really special," Lorenz said. "It shows a lot [about] the type of players that Coach Walton recruited to this class. They really just did anything that they could for the team."

Thankful to wear this jersey. Thankful for this program and thankful for these 4 seniors. This was tough. Go Gators forever ?? https://t.co/7SpltzZ7U6
— Amanda Lorenz (@AmandaLorenz18) June 3, 2018

Their dreams for a national championship were not to be, as losses to UCLA on Friday night and Oklahoma Saturday night eliminated the Gators from Women's College World Series. The team finished 56-11, but the senior class went out as the only players in SEC history to claim four straight league titles. Throw in the 2018 conference tournament crown, plus a ninth trip to the WCWS in the last 11 seasons, and into the books went yet another run the likes of which UF fans have come to expect from this program.

And will again next season.

Walton said he'll remember the 2018 Gators for their uncompromising work ethic.

"Blue collar," he said. "There was not one single day, from August until till now, that I had to motivate them to come to work."

The tone was set by that senior class, the one that tasted a national championship as a freshman class. Now, the last links to UF's last NCAA title squad are gone, but the expectations of 2019 will be no different. Walton won't let them be.

Lorenz won't either.

Obviously, she'll be the centerpiece of next year's team, after batting .416 and leading the squad in runs (75), hits (74), doubles (19), triples (4), RBI (61), walks (70), slugging (.753), on-base percentage (.582), and finishing second in home runs (11). And joining the SEC Player of the Year will be SEC Pitcher of the Year Kelly Barnhill, who went 29-3 with a 1.08 earned-run average, 324 strikeouts to just 76 walks.

Of Barnhill's three losses, two came in Oklahoma City, where she served up three more homers — two representing the decisive runs in UF's two losses — to push her season's total to 21.

"It's a lot of home runs, yes," Walton said, "But I also think you can overcome that if you have a dynamic offense that helped her out more. That would improve her overall ability to have more leads and not pitch under duress so much."

The Gators went to OKC ranked No. 2 nationally in fielding percentage (0.984) and sixth in ERA (1.43), but just 70th in batting average. Some of those deficiencies on offense, however, were masked by the ability to get on base, thanks to a team-record 360 walks for the season. Too many of those baserunners, though, were left out there.

"We were not a triple-threat offense, for sure. Not a bunt-steal-hit offense," Walton said. "We had a good season, we had good power and some good numbers, but we were not a dynamic offense."

Just three players hit .300 or better for the Gators. Less offense makes for a fine line in close games, especially against the elite competition that makes it to the WCWS. Whether the team can improve on that front next season — UF loses DeWitt's .326 average, which was second on the team — will be a focus when the 2019 squad reports for the fall.

Offensively, the Gators will return their excellent middle infield of Sophia Reynoso (two-year starter) and Hannah Adams (no errors as a freshman second baseman), Super Regional hero and utility player Jordan Matthews, outfielder Jaimie Hoover, who played some of the best softball of her career in the '18 NCAA Tournament, plus backup catcher Jordan Roberts, who hit two homers as a pinch-hitter at the WCWS.

A pair of incoming freshmen, utility player Cheyene Lindsey, a four-time state champion from Chattanooga, Tenn., and power-hitting Brittany Allen, another prime recruit from California, figure to provide instant impact.

After Barnhill, UF will have very little experience back in the circle, with Katie Chronister and Natalie Lugo (just 73 innings in their combined three seasons) the other pitchers slated to return. Walton and pitching coach Jennifer Rocha may need to lean on freshmen Elizabeth Hightower and Danni Farley.

Whoever will be on the field when the 2019 season commences, they'll do so after Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium undergoes an $11 million renovation project that will make the site a state-of-the-art complex among the finest in the country. Demolition work on the stadium begins next week.

"I'm not excited about the displacement for the fall and early part of the spring, but really excited about the progress that will take shape there in the coming months," Walton said. "We're going to be able to do some exciting things for our players and recruits, but also for the fans in providing a really professional atmosphere there. It's going to be really, really cool."