Wallace inside-the-park HR leads Gators into regional title game

Korbe Otis greets Skylar Wallace after a 4th inning inside-the-park home run (UAA Photo)

From the moment Skylar Wallace saw her sharp line drive skip over the glove of South Alabama’s diving center fielder, there would be no tapping the brakes.

“I honestly thought she (Mackenzie Brasher) was going to catch it,” Wallace said after her fourth inning laser beam straight up the middle that would score Korbe Otis ahead of her. “Then once I got close to first base, I turned the burners on. I was like all right, I know Coach (Tim) Walton too well. I’m scoring on this one, so here we go.”

Walton knew what was about to happen so he moved in position to start waving Wallace home the moment she rounded second. “As soon as she dove and the ball got over, we’ve got an inside-the-park home run here and sure enough we do,” Walton said with a grin. The base paths have been Wallace’s personal track meet the past three seasons as she has routinely turned singles into doubles and doubles into triples. The sprint around the bases Saturday not only ignited the Florida offense, but woke up the Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium crowd that was forced to endure a nearly 3-hour weather delay.

An inning later, Wallace lined a 2-run single up the middle to jump start a 6-run rally that gave the Gators (48-12) a 9-1 run-rule win over South Alabama in a winner’s bracket game in the NCAA Gainesville Regional. Florida, the No. 4 seed nationally, will play South Alabama (34-19-1) at 4 p.m. today for the regional championship. South Alabama staved off elimination Saturday night by taking down Florida Gulf Coast, 5-1.

Wallace was 2-2 at the plate Saturday. In Florida’s three SEC Tournament games and two in the regional, she is 11-14 with two doubles, four home runs and 15 RBI. In a month of May in which the Gators are 9-0, Wallace is 18-28 (.642) with five doubles, five homers and 22 RBI.  

Saturday’s win over South Alabama was a bit of a grind. The Gators fell behind 1-0 in the first inning when Keagan Rothrock gave up two of the three hits she surrendered while raising her record to 28-6 on the season. A spectacular diving grab of a line drive in the second that Mia Williams turned into an inning-ending double play might have saved the Gators from falling farther behind.

The Gators were hitting the ball hard off South Alabama starter Olivia Lacke, but nothing dropped until Ava Brown led off the third with a line drive home run into the right center field alley to tie the score at 1-1. One out later, the game went into a weather delay during which Wallace complained about the air conditioning in the locker room – “It was freezing in the locker room because the AC got fixed yesterday … it was pumping out 65, it was freezing in there!” – while teammates played hackey, fooled around on Tik-Tok or got treatment.

Korbe Otis slides into second base with a 4th-inning double (UAA Photo)

When the game resumed, Lacke got a strikeout and an easy third-to-first grounder to end the inning. Then came the fourth, started by Otis with a double down the left field line and Wallace’s 14th homer that gave the Gators some breathing room.

The fifth inning seemed as if the Gators simply decided enough of the nonsense, time to end the game. A walk, a fielder’s choice, a double by Kendra Falby and another walk loaded the bases for Wallace who lined a 3-1 pitch up the middle to make it 5-1. That was the end of the line for Lacke, who was replaced in the circle by Tori Miller.

Miller walked Jocelyn Erickson to load the bases and gave up a 1-out double to Katie Kistler, who drove the ball over the head of the right fielder to clear the bases for an 8-1 Florida lead. Miller walked Brown, then gave up a single to right field by Ariel Kowalewski to score Kistler to end the game on a run-rule.

“Overall we just grinded it out,” Walton said. “I was really happy with the way we transitioned from one pitcher to the other because they are completely different and teams have struggled and we did a good job. I give out players a ton of credit for being able to find a way to grind anything out.”

Rothrock wasn’t as sharp as she was Friday, but other than the first inning, she didn’t allow a runner past first base. She threw 68 pitches, 48 for strikes, with two strikeouts. For the second straight game she didn’t walk a batter although she did hit one.

While admitting Rothrock wasn’t as dominating as she was Friday, Walton said his freshman pitcher did what she needed to do to.

“Keagan wasn’t as good as she was yesterday, but that’s okay,” Walton said. “We’ve talked about she doesn’t have to be perfect all the time and she wasn’t. We made some good defensive plays in the field. Mia Williams had a fantastic double play there early in the game.”

Gator notes: The Gators have won 10 straight games and 11 out of 12 dating back to April 26, during which time the Gators have outscored opponents 99-53 … Wallace is now hitting .411 with 14 homers and 69 RBI. She has raised her batting average 43 points since May 1. Wallace has a .558 on-base percentage … With a walk and a double Saturday, Otis raised her batting average to .459 and her on-base percentage to .589. Otis leads the SEC in both hitting and on-base percentage … Brown with her 13th home run and Kistler with her 3-run double became the fifth and sixth Gators with 40 or more RBI … The Gators have gone three consecutive games without an error, prompting Walton to say, “This is an offensive team that’s getting better defensively.”