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Gator Women’s Tennis Rolls On At NCAA’s, Monday Sports News And Notes…

By Steve Russell on May 20th, 2013

The Florida women’s tennis team stays alive in its quest for a third straight national title, Gator baseball readies for postseason play and more in our Monday Sports News and Notes…

** The Florida women’s tennis team beat Cal 4-2 Sunday to advance in the NCAA Tournament; UF plays Stanford today at 6pm.  The Gators are going for a third straight national title.

** The Gator baseball team gears up for postseason play as it begins play in the SEC Tournament Tuesday against Texas A&M, a team UF has not played this year.   Florida is 29-27 on the year as it tries to win games to improve its NCAA Regional chances.

** The San Antonio Spurs rip the Memphis Grizzlies 105-83 in Game 1 of the NBA Western Conference finals.   The Eastern Conference final between Miami and Indiana gets underway Wednesday.

** In MLB news, Tampa Bay pitcher Matt Moore improves his record to 8-0 as the Rays beat Baltimore 3-1 for a series sweep.  The Rays have won 9 of their last 11 games.  The Rays visit Toronto tonight.

** Miami breaks a seven game losing streak with a 2-1 win over Arizona.  The Marlins will host Philadelphia tonight.

** And the Atlanta Braves beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-2 as the Braves open a two and a half game lead over Washington in the NL East.  The Braves open a home series with Minnesota tonight.

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Gator Softball beats USF 2-0, will host Super Regionals

By Kyle Logan on May 20th, 2013

Gaining the final out to finish the bottom of the seventh yesterday, the Florida Gator softball team was able to avenge a loss from one year ago.  The USF Bulls last year knocked out the Gators in an NCAA Regional but this year, a different result.

Up until yesterday, the Gators found no challenge from any opponent in this year’s regional, defeating the Hampton Pirates on Friday 7-1, followed by an 11-1 win over USF on Saturday.

However, another matchup against USF on Sunday in the regional final brought more challenges than the day before but the Gators still prevailed, beating the Bulls 2-0 to advance to NCAA Super Regional play.

The Bulls again threw their star left-hander Sarah Nevins and the Gators offense could not get much going. The Gators managed only one hit in seven innings, and had to find their way on base by other means. Florida freshman second baseman Kelsey Stewart, who got the only hit for Florida on the day, talks about the difference in Nevins’ performance from Saturday to Sunday.

Although Nevins had six strikeouts, she also gave up six walks and hit two batters. It was during the fourth inning that the Gators were able to score both runs thanks to their free passes around the bases.

Gator coach Tim Walton talks about his team finding ways to score runs against the Bulls’ great pitching.

While Nevins’ pitching performance was good, Florida’s Hannah Rogers was even better. Rogers threw all seven innings allowing no runs on just three hits while fanning five hitters.  Rogers talks about her outing yesterday.

The junior pitcher led the team yesterday as she’s done all year, and Walton talks about the little change that was made to Rogers pitching style.

With Sunday’s victory, the Gators showed that they could win under any circumstances. This win gives the Gators a record of 55-7 on the season, and adding in an SEC championship, Walton says this year’s team is truly special.

The Gators have now clinched a spot in yet another Super Regional, and will play host to the UAB Blazers next weekend. Game 1 will be Saturday May 25th, at 1pm.

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Gator Baseball Drops Regular Season Finale

By Steve Russell on May 19th, 2013

The end of the regular season probably can’t come soon enough for the Florida Gators baseball team.

The Gators finished the season in Athens, Georgia where the Bulldogs had only won five league games all year and Florida loses two of three to the Bulldogs including Saturday’s regular season ending 9-2 loss.

Florida will enter the SEC Tournament as the eighth seed and will play Texas A&M on Tuesday.  Florida ends the regular year 29-27 overall and 14-16 in SEC play.

The Gators have lost seven of their last nine SEC games and it started badly Saturday for the Gators and didn’t get much better.

Georgia scored three runs in the second inning to chase starter and loser Eric Hanhold but the Gators got two runs back in the third on rbi hits from Richie Martin and Casey Turgeon.   But that’s all the runs UF would get while Georgia went on the offensive as a four run barrage late in the game put the contest away.

Texas A&M is 30-25 overall and finished 13-16 in SEC play and the two teams will face each other for the first time this year Tuesday in the SEC Tournament.

 

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Gators Beat Bulls 11-1, Advance To Softball Regional Final

By Robert Judin on May 19th, 2013

If someone told Gator head Coach Tim Walton before Saturday’s 2013 NCAA Tournament game against South Florida that junior pitcher Hannah Rogers would only surrender one hit in an 11-1 win against the Bulls, he would have been pleased.

If that win came with Rogers only having to go five innings due to an offensive onslaught evoking a mercy rule, Walton would have been ecstatic.

That’s exactly what happened.

Well, Rogers did hit two batters in the first inning and walked four on the day, but she also struck out six.

Walton says Rogers is a gamer.

The Bulls did manage to get one runner across home in the top of the first inning.

With the bases juiced and one out, Lee Ann Spivey hit a dribbler back to Rogers who flung the ball to Taylore Fuller at home for the force out. The freshman catcher was greedy and tried to get the double play at first. But she hit Spivey in the back and allowed South Florida’s Stephanie Medina to score.

Walton says Rogers made a great play going to home.

Florida drove in run after run in the first three innings, knocking Bulls star pitcher Sara Nevins out of the game after just 1.1 innings. Nevins entered the game with a 0.93 ERA.

The Gators’ rally was sparked by a three-run home run from Lauren Haeger in the bottom of the first inning. She ordered in another three runs with a bases-clearing double in the second inning and picked up her seventh RBI in the third when she was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.

Haeger says she just tried to make contact.

Fuller got in on the long-ball action with a solo-lead-off home run in the second inning. That was her second blast in two days; she hit only two home runs all season.

Fuller says she’s been locked in at the plate.

Florida will play South Florida again today and needs to win just one more game for the Regional championship and the right to move on to the NCAA Super Regionals which will be played May 23-26.

Walton says he wants his team to stay focused.

With Rogers’ arm being spared an extra two innings, Walton could turn to his junior ace again Sunday for relief work out of the bullpen.

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Gator Baseball Loses At Georgia

By Steve Russell on May 18th, 2013

The Gator baseball team lost the second game of a three game series to the Georgia Bulldogs 3-1 Friday in Athens.

Florida is now 29-26 on the year and 14-15 in SEC play.

Florida started lefty Bobby Poyner on the mound and he pitched well but the Bulldogs would score all of their runs in one inning to saddle him with the loss.

Meanwhile the Gator bats were held nearly silent as they could push across only one run, that coming on a base hit by Harrison Bader that gave Florida a short lived 1-0 lead.   The Gators would only manage four hits in the game.

The final game of the regular season will be played Saturday before the Gators travel to play in the SEC Tournament next week in Hoover, Alabama.

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No. 2 Gator Softball beats Hampton 7-1 in NCAA Regional

By Arthur Shendell on May 18th, 2013

The No.2 Gator softball team powered past Hampton Friday evening by the score of 7-1 to win their first game in the Gainesville Regional.

Florida trailed 1-0 early in the first inning after Gator third baseman Katie Medina fired high to first, letting Margaret Wilkins reach second on the error. Wilkins then advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt and would score on a sacrifice fly. Hampton would not score again.

Alyssa Bashe was lights out from then on in the circle for Florida, allowing only two hits and striking out four in seven innings of work. The Lady Pirates would out reach base four times in the entire game against Bashe.

Bashe says she wanted to help the team win at all costs.

Florida’s offense picked things up in the bottom of the third when they scored four runs on Lady Pirate Jailynn Jackson (26-12). Lauren Haeger plated the first run for the Orange and Blue on a bases-loaded single. Taylor Schwarz would follow that up with a sac-fly to give the Gators the lead. Senior Kelsey Horton got in on the fun as well, singling in the third run of the inning. Brianna Little then hit her second triple of the season to put Florida up 4-1.

The Gators would tack on more runs in the bottom of the fifth to increase Hampton’s deficit. Kelsey Horton blasted her 10th homer of the season to make it 5-1 and two batters later Taylore Fuller wacked a pitch high and far off the left field foul pole to make it 6-1.

Kelsey Horton says she made some adjustments throughout the game that led to the homer.

With the win Alyssa Bashe moves to 9-0 on the season and Florida improves to 53-7 on the year. SEC Coach of the Year Tim Walton talks about Bashe’s dominating performance.

The regional continues all weekend as Florida now plays USF, the team that knocked the Gators out of a regional last year.  USF beat Georgia Southern to advance.

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Gator Softball In NCAA Regional Play

By Steve Russell on May 17th, 2013

The Gator softball team begins play this weekend in NCAA Regional action, hosting Hampton, Georgia Southern and USF.

Action starts Friday when Georgia Southern faces USF and the Gators take on Hampton for the first time in school history.

Florida is one of 11 SEC teams getting to play in an NCAA Regional and the Gators are the number two overall national seed.

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Gator Baseball Gets Big SEC Win

By Steve Russell on May 17th, 2013

The Florida baseball team has assured itself of having an above .500 record when NCAA Regionals are announced after downing Georgia 4-2 Thursday night in Athens.

Florida is now 14-14 in SEC play and 29-25 overall while Georgia slips to 5-20 in league play.

Florida opened the scoring in the second when Vickash Ramjit was hit by a pitch, he went to third on a double by Harrison Bader and scored on a sacrifice fly by DH Brady Roberson.

The Gators made it 2-0 in the fourth as Bader hit a sacrifice fly to support the excellent starting pitching of Jonathan Crawford.  But, Georgia tied it with runs in the fourth and seventh innings.

In the ninth, Ramjit and Josh Tobias singled and Bader drove home Ramjit with an RBI hit.   Tobias scored later on a balk and Johnny Magliozzi came on to get his 12th save to give the Gators the win.

UF plays Georgia again Friday night.  You can catch all the action on our sister station, Country 103.7 The Gator starting at 6:55 pm.

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Gator Baseball Plays Georgia In Final Series Of Regular Year

By Steve Russell on May 16th, 2013

The Gator baseball team has its final regular season series of the season starting Thursday when it faces SEC rival Georgia on the road.  You can hear all the games Thursday through Saturday live on Country 103-7 The Gator at 6:55pm Thursday and Friday and at 1:55pm on Saturday.

Florida needs to win at least one game to stay above the .500 mark going into the SEC Tournament next week.   UF needs to be above .500 overall to qualify for a possible NCAA Regional.  Florida is 13-14 in SEC play.

Georgia only has five league wins but still has a mathematical chance of making the SEC Tournament so there is incentive for the Bulldogs.  They come off a big come from behind win over rival Georgia Tech mid-week.

Jonothan Crawford gets the start on the mound for Florida Thursday and lefty Bobby Poyner starts Friday.   The Gators have not named a starter for Saturday.

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Gator Hoops Gets A Verbal, Wednesday Sports News And Notes…

By Steve Russell on May 15th, 2013

The Gator men’s basketball team gets a verbal commitment for the 2014 class, the NBA playoffs continue and more in our Wednesday Sports News and Notes…

** The Gator men’s basketball team gets a verbal commitment from the 2014 class in point guard Chris Chiozza from Memphis, Tennessee.   He is listed at 5’9″ and Rivals.com rates him a four star prospect.

** Pro basketball’s playoffs continue tonight as the Miami Heat can eliminate the Chicago Bulls with a win tonight.  Memphis can take out Oklahoma City with a win as well.   Last night, Indiana beat New York to go up 3-1 and San Antonio beat Golden State to go up 3-2 in that series.

** Former Gator Brad Beal was named to the NBA’s All Rookie team; before having his season cut short by injury, the Washington Wizards guard was a key contributor to the team.

** The nation’s so called number one men’s basketball recruit, Andrew Wiggins, announced his school choice and it will be Kansas; he chose the Jayhawks over Kentucky and FSU.

** The Santa Fe Saints softball team plays its first game in the National Junior College Athletic Association softball tournament today against Wallace State Community College out in Utah.

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