Gator Softball Earns Road Win Over FSU

Florida softball got revenge on the Florida State Seminoles Wednesday night. The sixth-ranked Gators defeated number four FSU 4-0 at JoAnne Graf Field in Tallahassee.

It is Florida’s eighth straight win since their 2-0 loss at home to this exact team on April 3.

https://twitter.com/GatorsSB/status/1118687774889189376?s=19

The win is UF’s 13th against a Top 25 team and its seventh shutout victory over one. It is now 26-17 all-time against Florida State.

Timely Hitting Strikes Again

Florida nabbed the lead with the game tied 0-0 in the top of the fourth.

Jordan Matthews laced an RBI double to center field with two on and no outs to score pinch runner Amanda Beane.

Second baseman Hannah Adams would extend the lead to 3-0 after a double of her own. It scored Matthews and another pinch runner in Haven Sampson.

Adams’s three-hit performance combined with fellow middle infielder Sophia Reynoso to go 6-for-7 on the night.

Florida wouldn’t score again until the top of the seventh after Amanda Lorenz hit a leadoff triple and scored from third on a single by Jordan Roberts.

T7 | RBI single by Roberts caroms off the leg of Sandercock and Lorenz scores! #Gators lead 4-0 over Florida State

— Gators Softball (@GatorsSB) April 18, 2019

Lights Out Barnhill

Kelly Barnhill threw a gem that included nine strikeouts on her way to a complete game shutout.

This is Barnhill’s third complete game shutout in her last seven starts. She went the full seven innings in each one of them.

Her full stat line on the night was nine strikeouts to three walks, two hits allowed on seven shutout innings. Those two hits are the second-lowest total for the Seminoles all season. The shutout loss is just their third all year as well. Sydney Sherrill had those lone two hits.

FSU boasts five batters who bat better than .350. They combined to go 2-for-13 with four strikeouts.

All of this came just days after being selected first overall by the Chicago Bandits in the NPF Draft. She is also just 15 strikeouts from matching Stacey Nelson’s all-time UF mark.

Dream big pic.twitter.com/twopt11aHc

— Kelly Barnhill (@kkatlyn111) April 17, 2019

She’ll be on a collision course with breaking that record this weekend against Alabama.

What’s Next

Florida will face a tough SEC test at home against the Alabama Crimson Tide.

They kick off the series with the fifth-ranked Tide with a doubleheader on Friday.