Despite numerous chances to win, Gators drop game two to Georgia

Korbe Otis blasts a second inning double (UAA Photo)

“Softball is a game of inches,” Korbe Otis said Saturday afternoon, describing the fly ball she hit to dead center field with the bases loaded in the top of the fifth inning against Georgia. “It didn’t go out today. Maybe it goes out tomorrow.”

An inch – maybe less – higher or lower on her bat and a fly ball probably leaves the confines of Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium instead of being caught two feet from the fence by Georgia’s Dallis Goodnight. A grand slam and the Florida Gators would have been packing their bags for Oklahoma City. Instead it was a sacrifice fly that scored Florida’s only run of the game.

Almost but not quite. That was the story of the game for the 3rd-ranked Gators (47-15), who dropped game two of their NCAA Super Regional with Georgia (35-22), 3-1, setting up a win or clean out the locker because the season is over game Sunday afternoon (4 p.m., ESPN).

Florida got good enough pitching to win the game if only the offense had cooperated. A day after one of her best outings of the season, starter Keagan Rothrock didn’t have her good stuff going. She gave up a one-out first inning home run to Goodnight, a first inning single by Jaydyn Goodwin and a second inning leadoff homer to Emily Diggs.

Florida coach Tim Walton didn’t need further convincing. The home run convinced him that it was time to replace his sophomore ace.

“I wasn’t going to go any further with her,” Walton said. Had the Gators scored in the first and second when they had threats, Rothrock might have had some leeway, but Walton wasn’t going to let the game get away so he went down to the bullpen personally to bring in sophomore lefty Olivia Miller.

Miller put the fire out before it could spread any further. She shut down the Bulldogs on a single, a walk and a hit batter in two innings. Walton went to the bullpen again, bringing in righthander Kara Hammack, who went the final three innings. Hammack gave up a single and a hit batter. She only struck out one but got seven Bulldogs out on ground balls.

That’s it. That’s all the Georgia offense could produce. It wouldn’t have taken much for Florida to push across a couple of runs to win the ball game, but this was not a typical game for the Gators, who have been one of the nation’s best offensive teams all season long. With the kind of pitching the Gators got from the second inning onward, this is a game Florida should have won.

“We’ve always talked to our pitchers, keep it under four [runs] and we’ll have a chance to win,” Florida coach Tim Walton said. “We had a chance to win today, to be clear. We just didn’t execute a great swing plan when we got to this point. We’re chasing balls out of the zone. We’re not a chase team. We had more swing and misses today probably than we’ve had. I don’t know if we’ve had more swing and misses all year.”

The swing and miss issue began in the first when the Gators loaded the bases with one out on Georgia lefty Lilli Backes. It wasn’t the only time the Gators put the pressure to Backes, but with the exception of the sacrifice fly by Otis the Gators were inept with runners in scoring position.

Backes gave up seven hits and walked five batters while striking out eight to improve to 16-10 on the season. It’s not that she was overpowering. Far from it, but it seemed that every time the Gators got runners on base, Backes went to the rise ball and got the Gators swinging at chin-high pitches.

The first inning was the indicator of things to come. Kendra Falby beat out a bunt to lead off and one out later, Backes issued 5-pitch walks to both Jocelyn Erickson and Reagan Walsh. The Gators bailed Backes and Georgia out of a huge inning when Mia Williams and Ava Brown swung and missed at pitches that were located somewhere between their chins and eyes.

In the second, Otis led off with a double in the gap to left center and advanced to third two outs later on an infield single by Falby. Backes jammed Shumaker who tapped to first for an easy third out. Two innings, two threats snuffed out.

Back-to-back singles by Otis and Kenleigh Cahalan in the fourth put two on with nobody out in the fourth, but Backes needed only eight pitches to dispose of Rylee Holtorff, Falby and Shumaker for yet another fruitless Gator threat.

With one out in the fifth, Walsh got to second on a throwing error by Digby. Pinch-runner Kylie Shaw moved to third on a Williams single to left, which was followed by a walk to Brown. Bases loaded, one out. Otis missed a homer by two feet but it was deep enough to score Shaw to cut Georgia’s lead to 2-1 and for Williams to advance to third. Backes got Cahalan to weakly ground out to first. Another threat ended with minimal damage.

In the sixth, Falby reached second on a one-out throwing error by Mua Williams, but Backes induced Shumaker and Erickson to loft lazy fly balls for outs two and three.

Florida mounted one last threat in the seventh, this one enough to send Backes to the bench with Randi Roelling coming in to get the last two outs to save the game. Walsh led off by drilling a single off the shoulder of Backes and went to third when Backes threw the ball away at first. Williams worked a sixth pitch walk but Backes struck out Brown. That brought in Roelling from the bullpen. Otis hit a deep fly ball to left field that advanced pinch-runner Brooke Barnard and Williams, but Cahalan popped up to second base to end the game.  

Throughout the season, the Gators have done a good job of putting bad days at the plate behind them and rebounding with a solid effort next time out. Walton let his team know what they need to do for a bounce back game Sunday.

“I told every single one of our hitters including yesterday and today: just go back and watch your pitches,” Walton said. ”You don’t have to evaluate what the swing looked like. You don’t have to evaluate the mechanics. Just go look: did you make a good choice?

“Did you swing at the pitch right? Did the umpire call a pitch a strike or a ball that you thought was a strike or a ball? Just go in and make sure that we’re not guessing at what the outcome was … I think it’s just really important to make sure that there isn’t some woulda, coulda shoulda. Just go back and watch your swings. See what the pitches look like and then from there, you’ll make better decisions.”