The Gators chomp for the home crowd after Monday night's 12-7 come-from-behind win over No. 5 Alabama.
'Different' Version of Gators Routs Tide in Finale
Monday, April 11, 2022 | Softball, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — This season has just been different. That's what Florida coach Tim Walton said about 30 minutes after his team's 12-7 thrashing of fifth-ranked Alabama that allowed his seventh-ranked Gators to stave off a series sweep on their home field. Walton looked at his watch.
"It's 10:15 on a Monday night," he said. "That's different."
Yeah, it is. So is being the defending Southeastern Conference co-champion and being a middling 8-7 in league play nearly two-thirds of the way through the season. So is playing a slew of underclassmen, including four freshman starters this season.
And so was arriving at KSP earlier in the day on a three-game losing streak — the team's first since 2019 — and looking at another game facing All American Montana Fouts and the Crimson Tide's vaunted pitching staff with a chance of losing a fourth straight (get this, folks) for the first time in Walton's 17 seasons as head coach at Florida.
So, yes, things were different.
But something else was different Monday. How the Gators played relative to the last few weeks.
"I want that," Walton said. "That's what I want. I want that."
That was a second-inning homer to dead-center from Reagan Walsh (off Fouts, no less) that broke the hitting ice for the home team and pushed across the first run of what would be a four-RBI night for the freshman. That was a two-run single by Walsh in the third inning to tie the game at 3-all. That was the six-run answer to Alabama's pair of runs to open the fourth inning, when the Gators chased both Fouts and fellow Tide ace Lexi Kilfoyl (after just 13 pitches) to take a commanding 9-5 lead. And that was three insurance runs, courtesy of RBI hits from Charla Echols and Sam Roe to take the margin to 12-5 and make Alabama's two runs and seventh-inning base-loaded threat more palatable.
Freshman Reagan Walsh sizes up Alabama All American Montana Fouts (14) before taking her deep in the second inning. "I was looking for a pitch hard and down the middle," Walsh said. "She gave it to me and I attacked it."
After going 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position in Sunday's frustrating 2-1 extra-inning defeat, the Gators went 6-for-10 with RISP in the series finale.
"If we can just get a spark going, I know this team will light up," said Roe, the freshman who had a pair of hits. "We know what it takes. We needed that little push and we took off with it."
And that was fun. Fun for Walton, his players and for a home crowd that was so lively and energetic that Walton made a point to raise his hat in the fans' direction as his team celebrated its big victory, with the highest run production against a ranked opponent this season.
It was a good way for the Gators to put some distance between themselves and those three straight losses — first last Wednesday night against No. 2 Florida State, followed by the first two of the Bama series — and a trio of games when the team totaled just six runs.
"The mentality was get after it and play as a team," said junior shortstop Skylar Wallace, the transfer from Alabama who scored three runs and probably enjoyed the game a tad more than everyone else in the ballpark. "The game is a game of failure, so sometimes you're going to get beaten down. It's how you come back and get after it the next day."
What Walton got, in his words, was "a good, professional way to approach a game."
Junior shortstop Skylar Wallace, the Alabama transfer, comes home for one of her three runs scored in Monday's victory.
The Gators now sit seventh in the SEC standings with series remaining at Ole Miss, then home against currently front-running and 10th-ranked Arkansas, then at 21st-ranked LSU, plus a handful of mid-week dates, including a rematch with Florida State on the road.
As he wrapped up his post-game remarks, Walton recounted a conversation he had with the radio crew before the game.
"He asked, 'Are you ready to rock?' I was born ready to rock, I've been waiting for these guys to get ready to roll," Walton repeated. "When they get on a roll, they get on a roll."
They did Monday and it looked … well ... like he said.
Everyone noticed.
"It was nice to see my teammates show up a little different than we did the past two [games]," said Wallace, using that "D-word" again. "We put it together, put smiles on our faces and had fun. That's what we've been talking about; playing for one another. We have a good team. We have talent."
