Florida Head Coach Tim Walton secured his 900th win with the Gators and has 1,023 career wins in his 21 seasons as a head coach.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The eighth-ranked Florida softball team downed UAB, 9-0 (5 innings), to open the three-game road series Friday evening at Mary Bowers Field. Elizabeth Hightower (7-2) hurled a complete-game shutout and Skylar Wallace tied her career highs in hits (3) and RBI (5) in the win.
The Gators (12-3) offense cranked out nine hits, led by Wallace’s 3-for-3 performance, and held the Blazers to just four hits in what turned out to be the Orange & Blue’s ninth five-inning run-rule affair of the year.
The nation’s best scoring offense that averages 9.21 runs per game scored in the 1st inning, 2nd inning and 4th inning to take the first game of the series.
UF scored the first run of the game and took a 1-0 lead thanks to a SAC fly off the bat of Charla Echols that scored Kendra Falby from third. The Orange & Blue went on to post four runs in the 2nd inning of action on Sarah Longley’s RBI double down the right field line and Wallace’s three-run home run over the left field wall.
Florida’s lead was extended out to 9-0 in the 4th inning behind a bases loaded RBI walk drawn by Falby, a two RBI single by Wallace and a SAC fly by Reagan Walsh.
Hightower went the distance in the circle and posted her third complete-game shutout the season.
The Gators and the Blazer return to action Saturday, March 4, at 1 p.m. ET. The game will be video streamed live on ConferenceUSA.com.
Notables:
* Florida has now outscored opponents 138-39 on the season and turned in nine five-inning run-rule victories in 15 games played
* Tonight was also the sixth shutout of the year.
* Gators Head Coach Tim Walton secured his 900th win as the head coach of the Florida program.
* Walton is in his 18th season as the head coach and holds a record of 900-204 (.815)
* Overall, Walton holds a career record of 1,023-268 (.792) in 21 seasons as a head coach.
* Skylar Wallace extended her hit streak out to nine games which ties her career-high that she set in 2022.,
* She also tied her career-high in hits going 3-for-3 at the plate and tied her career-high with five RBI.
* Wallace stole her 10th base of the season and also hit her fourth home run of the year.
* Wallace & Katie Kistler (2-for-3) both tallied multi-hit games tonight, Kistler’s pair of hits are a season-high along with her two RBI.
* Hightower’s complete-game was her 28th of her career and the complete-game shutout was the 18th of her career.
* In Hightower’s seven wins this season she has not allowed an earned run.
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