No. 8 Gators Drop Opener at No. 12 Arkansas

Friday, March 24

Fayetteville, Ark.

7 PM

Florida Gators

23-6, 0

Arkansas

23-8, 0

Florida

Arkansas

The two teams will take the field for game two of the series Saturday at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN2.

No. 8 Gators Drop Opener at No. 12 Arkansas

Friday, March 24, 2023 | Softball

Box Score

By: Herb Brooks

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The eighth-ranked Florida softball team fell, 6-2, to No. 12 Arkansas Friday evening at Bogle Park. UF will look to even the series Saturday at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN2.

The Gators (23-6, 2-2 SEC) and the Razorbacks (23-8, 4-3 SEC) opened the series amidst misty weather conditions and eventually began play after a 30-minute delay.

Florida opened the scoring in the top of the 1^st inning and took and early 1-0 lead over Arkansas' Chenise Delce (12-4). Delce dealt a leadoff walk to Skylar Wallace, who then proceeded to steal second and advanced to third after the throw from the UA catcher went into the outfield. Reagan Walsh drove home Wallace in the ensuing at-bat via a groundout to third.

Elizabeth Hightower (10-3) held the Razorbacks scoreless for the following three innings, but UA's Hannah Gammill evened the score 1-1 with a solo home run to leadoff the bottom of the 4^th inning. Arkansas went on to score two more unearned runs in the frame to take a 3-1 lead.

The Gators responded in the top of the 5^th inning to close down the lead 3-2 thanks to back-to-back singles from Wallace and Walsh and a throwing error by Delce to third when trying to retire Wallace on a fielder's choice hit back to the circle by Echols.

Gammill extended Arkansas' lead back out to two runs with her second solo home run of the game in the bottom half of the 5^th inning after the Gators turned a 5-4-3 double play and added two more in the 6^th inning to extend their lead out to 6-2.

Notables:

Wallace went 1-for-2 with two runs scored, a pair of walks and a stolen base to extend her hit-streak out to seven games.
- She has also reached base safely in 25 consecutive games.
Reagan Walsh (1-for-3) and Katie Kistler (1-for-2) extended their hit streaks out to four games.
Charla Echols (1-for-4) extended her reached base safely streak to 16 games.