After taking two out of three from Texas A&M and having a massive weekend series against Texas looming, it would have been easy for Florida Softball to fall into a trap against UCF. The Knights came into Gainesville 19-8-1, and, as is the case for all sports, have a way of turning games against Florida into their own World Series.
And to UCF's credit, hard-throwing freshman Yessenia Lopez had the Gators one step behind the bulk of the evening, giving up just four hits and one walk.
But the key for Florida is that two of those hits were solo home runs, one from Jocelyn Erickson and one from Kendra Falby. Florida scratched across a third run in the 5th inning off a Falby single and it was all the run support Kara Hammock needed in the circle.
Hammock went 6.2 innings with four hits and no runs. Katelynn Oxley entered with two outs and two on in the 7th to pick up the save.
Lacrosse prevails over Navy
The No. 6 ranked Lacrosse team found themselves in hole against No. 23 Navy at home. The Gators fell behind 11-7 in the 3rd quarter before rallying to tie it at 11 off Clark Hamilton's 21st goal of the season.
Florida fell behind again 13-11 before Jenny Markey capped off a three goal rally to take the 14-13 lead with 3:14 left to play.
Florida held on to close it out and is now 4-2 on the season.
15 swimmers off to nationals
The NCAA Championships for Swimming and Diving are at the end of March, and the Gators are sending 15 swimmers on the men's side to Washington.
Eric Brown, Scotty Buff, Ed Fullum-Huot, Mason Laur, Josh Liendo, Gio Linscheer, Caleb Maldari, Jonny Marshall, Jake Mitchell, Alexander Painter, Josh Parent, Aleksas Savickas and Julian Smith have all punched their ticket to nationals.
Florida is sending the third most swimmers on the men's side to nationals, with Texas and Cal being the only two schools sending more.