OKLAHOMA CITY — The game basically was over before it began.
Senior
Kelly Barnhill finally hit the wall Saturday, only this time the wall hit back. And it was painted crimson and white. The Florida star, one of the greatest pitchers in program history and one of the faces of college softball the last four seasons, didn't get out of the first inning of UF's eventual 15-3 loss to Alabama that eliminated the Gators from the Women's College World Series.
Barnhill, the workhorse who basically carried her team through the postseason in starting 11 straight games, left the game having faced just eight batters and trailing 6-0, after getting tagged for a lead-off double and two three-run homers, while also walking two and hitting a batter.
"I just didn't come out having my best stuff," Barnhill said. "Looked pretty good in bullpen, but got out there in the game and Alabama was on it. They took some good swings and I didn't make my best pitches.
And when she made her exit, trying desperately to hold back the tears, it just did not feel right. Not for anybody.
Especially for her coach.
"I can't let
Kelly Barnhill walk off the field that way,"
Tim Walton told himself.
Maybe 90 minutes later, with the Crimson Tide rolling 11-0 in the bottom of the fourth, Walton went to Barnhill.
"One more pitch," he said.
Barnhill looked at him sideways.
"I'm gonna cry again," she said.
"It'll be worth it," Walton assured.
Was it ever.
Softball rules, of course, allow for players to be subbed back into games. Walton took out his third pitcher,
Natalie Lugo, and reinserted Barnhill to face Bama's Elissa Brown. She gathered herself in the circle, tugged her mask over her face, and promptly delivered a 67-mph fastball on the outside corner that Brown whiffed on.
Strike!
Just like that, Walton was back out of the dugout. He made a beeline to the circle and wrapped his arms around the program's all-time strikeouts leader.
One by one, Barnhill hugged her infielders, then incoming pitcher
Katie Chronister, who was handed the ball, but more like a ceremonial torch for this incredible moment in time. Barnhill then jogged a few steps toward home plate and into an embrace from catcher
Jordan Roberts, then made her way toward the Florida dugout, only to stop short. That's when she laid her glove on the ground, stood straight and proud, and did the Gator chomp for the Florida fans standing and cheering behind the dugout.
In fact, the crowd at Hall of Fame Stadium, in its entirety, rose to its collective feet, well aware of what Barnhill had done and meant — not just for the Gators, but for the game — the past four seasons.
Yes, even the Alabama fans.
"The crowd was absolutely amazing," an emotional Barnhill said afterward.
Her last one.
In left field, fellow senior
Amanda Lorenz could not hold it in. The outcome of the game was already decided, but seeing her coach change the personal ending for a beloved teammate made Lorenz break down.
"I was really trying not to get emotional until the last out was made, but when I saw Coach [go] out there, give her a hug, I was crying in left field. That's not fun. I'm in the middle of a softball game — I don't want to be crying, but I was crying," Lorenz said, recounting the scene in the post-game news conference through, of course, more tears. "To hear all the fans cheering for her, honoring her, just having one more smile and happy memory as she's leaving the field, that is just so special."
Even Alabama coach Patrick Murphy, as big a rival to the Florida program as anyone, soaked in the scene. During his news conference, Murphy recalled the first time his team went up against Barnhill, then a freshman back in 2016, and how he went at one of his players for swinging at a pitch that was well over her head.
"She told me, 'Murph, I didn't even see it!' I was like, 'OK, this is going to be a long game,' " Murphy said. "Great competitor. Good, smart kid. I wish I could say I'm going to miss her, but I'm really glad she's graduating."
Walton, on the other hand, is not. Anymore than he is about saying farewell to Lorenz, the greatest pure hitter ever to wear the UF uniform. That their careers would end was inevitable, but it's never easy to come face to face with that time.
"That's the most emotional part," Walton said. "That feeling that I won't have a chance to be with them again and coach them up."
Amanda Lorenz (left) and Kelly Barnhill (right), two of the greatest players in UF history, meet the press as teammates one last time.
And that's what made the one-more-pitch moment so cool. When it seemed like Barnhill's career was over, Gators everywhere got to see her one more time; and got to see her exit the big stage in a fashion more fitting and deserving of one of the all-time great players and ambassadors of the game.
Barnhill deserved a better ending. Walton gave her one.
"She'll remember that the rest of her life," Lorenz said.
We all will.
