Tim Walton And Florida Gators Softball Has A Team Of Championship-Caliber Comeback Kids
Why does the saying, “don’t call it a comeback,” exist?
And at what point does the Florida Gators softball equipment staff remove the word “Gators” from the team’s jerseys and replace it with “Comeback Kids”?
And last question: Can the Gators sign Tim Walton to a lifetime contract? If so, it should’ve been signed, sealed and delivered on Sunday afternoon following the Gators’ sweep of Texas A&M to secure their share of the SEC regular season crown.
During his appearance on Shane Matthews’ daily podcast “PodUp with Matthews in the Morning” on Wednesday, Walton revealed that he told UF athletic director Scott Stricklin that if he won the SEC title by sweeping the Aggies over the weekend, it would be his greatest SEC accomplishment in his career.
But due to the sheer improbability and difficulty that the 2021 college softball campaign brought, Walton seemingly puts more weight behind his team’s accomplishments this season.
“In my mind, we’ve exceeded expectations,” Walton told Matthews. “Not necessarily because we didn’t think we were going to be a winning team, but this is going to be a really, really, really difficult year to win a championship.”
And last weekend’s series was a testament to that.
Florida was 16-5 in conference play when it welcomed Texas A&M, which was 8-14 in the SEC, to Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium. The Gators were widely expected to take care of the Aggies handedly and waltz away with a conference title. But that was far from how the weekend played out.
While the Gators did finish the weekend with a championship, they had to scratch and claw to finish the mission.
Florida fell behind Texas A&M 3-0 through the first three innings of play on Friday before the Gators could scratch across a pair of runs in the bottom of the third frame.
The Gators and Aggies traded three straight scoreless innings before Walton’s squad found itself down a run with three outs to survive.
Florida’s nine-hole hitter Cheyenne Lindsey drew a lead-off walk, followed by Hannah Adams taking a free base of her own before Charla Echols finally knocked a “hit that mattered”.
Walton revealed during his post-game interview that he had overheard Echols in the dugout telling a teammate that her father had asked her when she was going to make a hit that mattered?
Well, if Echols could predict the future, she would have told him, “Dad, I’m going to make a hit that matters in the biggest game of the regular season.”
With the tying run in scoring position, Echols ripped a 2-2 offering over the center field wall, good for a three-run, walkoff home run to maintain Florida’s hopes of sweeping the Aggies and claiming half of the SEC title, which it would share with the Arkansas Razorbacks.
“She’s unbelieveable,” Walton told Matthews of Echols. “I think Amanda Lorenz is probably the best hitter I’ve ever coached in all ways. Charla is learning and growing to be one of the best.”
In Saturday’s contest, the Gators had a stronger handle on the Aggies, much like many anticipated the entire series to go.
Natalie Lugo tossed a complete-game shutout, while receiving the help of a trio of home runs on offense.
Echols, Lindsey and Adam’s each went yard on Saturday, helping the Gators to a 4-0 win to secure the series. However, it was a well-known fact that Florida needed to sweep the series to walk away from the weekend satisfied.
During Sunday afternoon’s series finale, it was Florida’s game to lose.
While the Gators were playing for a SEC title, the Aggies were playing for the opportunity to head back to College Station bragging about how they kept Florida from winning a league-leading ninth SEC regular season title.
And through the first four innings, it appeared as though Texas A&M was going to have the satisfaction of doing just that as the Aggies maintained a 4-0 lead.
“We’re down 4-0 and this team... we’re averaging maybe four to six runs a game... somewhere and that range,” Walton told Matthews. “But we haven’t come back from that many runs this year. It’s been really tough because when we have a lead, we usually put the pedal to the metal and get out and go crazy.
“Our team played it like we were going to the world series.”
Florida began posting its second comeback bid of the series in the fifth inning as Hannah Adams knocked a two-run home run to cut the lead in half. Fifth-year senior Jaimie Hoover followed with a two-RBI double later in the inning to knot the game up at four runs apiece.
But the Aggies quickly broke the stalemate in the top of the sixth inning as TAMU’s Rylen Wiggins whacked a solo home run to give her team a one-run advantage.
While the Gators failed to answer the call in the bottom of the sixth frame, Katie Chronister and the Gators’ field kept the Aggies from increasing their lead in the top of the seventh, giving Florida’s lineup the go-ahead opportunity in the bottom of the seventh frame.
After Echols notched a double (another hit that she can brag to her dad about) to put the tying run in scoring position, sophomore Julia Cottrill came to the plate during the next at-bat as the winning run.
Earlier in the game, during the Gators’ fifth inning rally, Cottrill slid headfirst into home in an astounding effort that claimed a piece of her front tooth.
“I had to go in that moment,” Walton told Matthews. “She was the tying run, two outs... everything lined up perfectly in that situation. But I think the biggest key for me is that she was able to competitively contort her body and put herself in position to get her hand... go from left hand to right hand... it was unbelievable.”
And when it was time for Cottrill to return to the batter’s box, it was evident that the game had her taxed.
But there was still a little fuel left in the reserves.
With Echols itching to be driven home, Cottrill nailed a pitch, sending it bouncing off the bullpen roof in left field for the two-run walkoff home run, Cottrill’s fourth time this season sending a pitch out of the park.
“She’s never had a walkoff hit, let alone a walkoff home run,” Walton told Matthews. “What she did on Sunday is kinda what I expect out of her long-term in her career.”
After Cottrill rounded the bases and leapt onto home plate, an emotional dogpile took her down to the clay surround home plate.
“You could tell by our emotions by the end of that weekend, it was really a great accomplishment,” Walton said.
Florida’s sweep of Texas A&M not only helped the Gators capture a conference crown, but it also blessed them with the distinction of being the No. 1 seed in the SEC tournament, giving them a favorable opening-round bye Florida opened conference tournament play on Thursday with a noon start against the Mississippi State Bulldogs from Rhoads Stadium in Tuscaloosa.
And while the Gators swept the Bulldogs in the regular season with three straight shutouts, Mississippi State came to play on Thursday.
The Bulldogs posted a two-run second inning and maintained the two-run lead through 4.5 innings.
But the Gators, with the experience of two walkoff wins last weekend, knew that there were 21 outs in a game and as long as they still had an out to give, they still had a chance to win.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, fifth-year senior Kendyl Lindman lifted a three-run home run to take a one-run lead over Mississippi State, adding to the Gators trend of late-game heroics.
Echols went on to add a three-run long ball of her own in the sixth inning to add some insurance runs to the board for Florida.
The Gators advanced to the tournament semifinals behind a come-from-behind 6-2 win over the Bulldogs and will battle the Missouri Tigers on Friday at 4 p.m.
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