Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Tim Walton recalls vividly the instant he wanted Hannah Adams in his program. 

Florida was staging a camp at Seashole Pressly Stadium. Walton called for drill to work on relay throws. From home plate, he smashed a ball over the left fielder's head. She chased it down and threw the relay to Adams, then a petite, 95-pound Georgian, who was playing shortstop. Adams had moved into the outfield and correctly positioned herself to take the throw. It was what she did afterward that wowed the UF coach. 

"I had never seen a ball thrown that hard, that perfect," Walton said. 

From his spot at home plate, Walton swears he could hear the ball hissing on its way to the catcher's mitt. Ever since, when Walton and his staff make reference to that year's camp, they refer to it as "The Hannah Adams Camp." 

That's the kind of stamp Adams put on the program before even getting here. Five years later, a case can be made the 2021 Gators are Hannah Adams' team, with the senior second baseman — once known almost exclusively for her defense — basically putting on a clinic in the field, the batter's box and locker room. 

That all-encompassing Adams skills set has helped No. 4 Florida (30-5, 10-2) position itself for another run at a Southeastern Conference title, with this weekend's trip to No. 3 Alabama (32-5, 11-4) looming large as the 2021 season enters the home stretch. The Gators will go to Tuscaloosa as the league's second-place team, one-and-half games behind front-running Arkansas, and with a game-and-a-half edge on the third-place Crimson Tide, who took two of three from the Razorbacks last weekend. 

UF also will go to Bama coming off Wednesday night's downer of a display in losing 7-0 at home against No. 25 UCF — giving the Golden Knights their first-ever sweep of the Gators in a regular-season series — in a game Florida trailed 4-0 before recording an out and managed just three hits. Adams had one of those knocks, which should come as no surprise given what she's done at the plate so far this season. 

In the bigger picture, what she's done the last two seasons has been absolutely extraordinary, given what she did her first two seasons. 

"My mindset [as a hitter] was not very good my first two years," Adams said. "It's completely different now. My total approach [at the plate] is different."

How different? 

* During the 2018-19 seasons, Adams' offensive numbers were nearly identical. She went 53-for-192 as a freshman and 54-for-190 as a sophomore, over 134 games (67 each year). Her average halfway through her college career was a respectable .280, with a combined six home runs to go with 53 RBI. Her best slugging season was .411 in her second year. 

* In the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign, Adams jumped her average by nearly 100 points. She batted .375, with four homers and 16 RBI while slugging .563 over 27 games.

* In 2021, she's hitting .431 (that's fifth in the SEC), with five homers and 28 RBI while batting leadoff and still with 14 regular-season games remaining. 

So over the last two seasons, Adams has combined to hit .407 — an increase of nearly 130 points from the first half of her career — to go with nine homers and 30 RBI in 62 games. 
 
Oh, and she remains (Walton and his players will insist) the best defensive second baseman in the nation and worthy of All-America consideration, with a glistening career fielding percentage of .983, including that astounding freshman season — that ended in the Women's College World Series — when she went errorless for a perfect 1.000 percentage. The Gators used to swoon at her ability to make highlight-reel plays look routine, but those moments no longer surprise. 

Apparently, her hitting hitting prowess doesn't, either. 

Adams traces her improvement to a conversation she had with Walton late in her sophomore year that focused on confidence and aggression. Walton always knew Adams had a better bat somewhere in her game. He recognized as much during the recruiting process when he saw a sweet-swinging prospect — the daughter of former college player who started her off batting left-handed at a young age — who just lacked a little something in that swing. 

"Her mentality was more like, 'I'm trying to get a hit,' where as now it's, 'I'm going to hit you hard,' " Walton said. "She went from being an OK hitter to a good hitter. Now she's gone from being a good hitter to a great hitter because she's not settling just to make contact."

Now, she's attacking the ball. She's managed to marry her hand-eye coordination (like her swing, it was always there) with a terrific anticipation of what pitch is coming. Rise. Drop. Change-up. Curve. Front door. Back door. Adams is swinging the bat the way she wants to versus how the pitcher wants her to. 

UF third baseman Charla Echols knows something about that sort of approach. She leads the team with 10 homers, 39 RBI and her slugging percentage of .768 is nearly 150 points better than the next-best Gator (Adams). Echols, who transferred from Michigan State two years ago, remembers watching her teammate in the hitting cages and in scrimmages last fall and just seeing something different.

"She had the best fall I'd ever seen someone have — offensively, we could not get her out — so I think we all kind of had an idea she was in for a big year," Echols said. "Her potential is way better than anyone's I'd ever seen. So many things come easy for Hannah, but her preparation is so different. She doesn't go overboard with it, but focuses on the most important things, and because of that I think the game really slows down for her in the big moments. Nothing is too big for her." 

Getting there was a process, with a little prodding from her coach. 

"I think my work ethic in practice changed. My intent was always there, but it all just got better in practice and made me more confident in games," said Adams, who saw her habits manifest themselves (and that confidence boon) by going 15 of 36 over an 11-game stretch that ended the regular season and fed into the NCAA Tournament, and included eight multi-hit games. "I think the end of [sophomore] season and into the postseason, it just changed. I was like 'Your team needs you.' I think that was the biggest thing. Forgetting about what had happened before, flushing it and starting over." 

A question was put to Walton. 

True or false: Hannah Adams' offense has caught up with her elite defense? 

"True," Walton said. "I think Hannah Adams is the best second baseman in the entire country. She is the most valuable player we have in doing what she does on both sides. It's incredible."

Yes. Like the camp named in her honor.