Florida Softball: Golden opportunity wasted by Gators against Tennessee
![Florida infielder Skylar Wallace (17) hits a single driving in a run in the bottom of the second to make it 3-1 Florida. The Florida women’s softball team hosted USF at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium in Gainesville, FL on Wednesday, April 19, 2023. Florida won 7-3 by hitting a grand slam in the bottom of the seventh inning. [Doug Engle/Gainesville Sun]Flgai 042123 Usf Uf Softball](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_1080,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape%2Fcover%2Fsport%2F24fc444f7e9f1d348ba7070fe1f3a9edd8d184fc0e47654f7a610b6f5136f5e3.jpg "Florida infielder Skylar Wallace (17) hits a single driving in a run in the bottom of the second to make it 3-1 Florida. The Florida women’s softball team hosted USF at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium in Gainesville, FL on Wednesday, April 19, 2023. Florida won 7-3 by hitting a grand slam in the bottom of the seventh inning. [Doug Engle/Gainesville Sun]Flgai 042123 Usf Uf Softball")
The up-and-down season for Florida softball hit another valley over the weekend as the Gators were swept on the road by the Tennessee Volunteers. It was another disappointing outcome for a squad that was picked as the preseason SEC favorite.
Perhaps the bigger frustration for Florida isn’t that it got swept, but that it was Florida held multi-run leads in games two and three that it couldn’t hang onto.
Florida Softball: No cigar
The series started out with the Gators looking outmatched by the Lady Vols, suffering a 9-1 mercy rule defeat on Saturday. Skylar Wallace was the lone bright spot, hitting a game-tying home run in the third inning, which was promptly followed up by Florida surrendering six runs in the bottom of the third off just three hits. Elizabeth Hightower took the loss after three innings pitched for seven earned runs off four hits and five walks.
It must be said that Florida softball are fighters and on Sunday they blasted out to a 9-3 lead, with the top of the lineup doing the bulk of the damage.
It was still a 9-4 lead heading into the sixth inning and the opportunity for a massive victory for Florida’s top 16 seeding hopes was six out away.
Then the following happened:
- Hit by pitch
- Single that turned into a double
- Error
- Double
- Walk
- Hit by pitch
- Double
- Single
- Ground out
- Strike out
- Strike out
The damage was done and Florida was behind 11-9 and lost 11-10. It was a meltdown that mirrored the meltdown they had against South Carolina a couple of weeks back.
But Monday, Florida was again started up for the challenge. Once again the Gators found themselves up 5-1 in the second inning following a Wallace three-run home run.
And once again the lead disappeared.
Tennessee plated three in the second to pull it to 5-4, then went up 7-5 in the fourth, and put an exclamation mark on the series when a three-run homer in the fifth made it 10-6.
The end result for the Gators was a sweep when it should have been a series win.
Florida has two weeks left before the SEC tournament. They will play two mid-week games against FSU between this week and next, along with a series against Ole Miss and a series against Kentucky.
If the Gators are to have any hope of securing a top 16 seed to host regionals, it has to win both the Ole Miss and Kentucky series. If they can go 5-1 between the two series and somehow take a game off FSU, then the Gators are right back in the legit conversation.
But as it stands, Florida will be holding its breath if it hopes to stay in Gainesville to start the NCAA tournament. While it hold its breath, perhaps they can think about the wasted opportunity it had in Knoxville.