SIX BITS Baseball, softball, gymnastics, tennis win

By Adam Silverstein
March 6, 2010

1 » After suffering their first loss of the season against No. 6/3 Florida State in the inaugural Florida Four tournament, the No. 5/6 Florida Gators traveled to Coral Gables, FL, for a three-game series against the No. 16/11 Miami Hurricanes. OGGOA will wrap-up the series on Sunday, but on Friday, the Gators (6-1) took down the Hurricanes (6-2) 7-1 in the series’ first game. Sophomore starter Alex Pantelidois (3-0) held Miami hitless into the fifth inning and registered a career-high eight strikeouts. Fellow sophomore Nick Mardone earned his first career save by striking out seven over 3.1 innings without giving up a hit or run. Three Gators acquired two RBI in the contest.

Five more BITS including a softball doubleheader, gymnastics triangular meet and SEC openers for men’s and women’s tennis…after the break!

2 » Heading into the DeMarini Invitational on Friday, No. 3/10 Florida softball (13-1) was looking for the program’s 600th victory. It achieved that goal in its first game, taking down the Pacific Tigers (4-7) 12-3 in five innings. Senior outfielder Francesca Enea smacked her seventh career grand slam in the third inning and also extended her hit streak to eight games. Freshman Ensley Gammel (2-0) won her second contest of the season in a complete game effort.

3 » Just hours later, the Gators took on their second opponent of the day, the No. 10/12 Stanford Cardinal. Unfortunately for UF, the outcome of the game was not similar, as Florida (13-2) fell to Stanford (13-2) 2-0 in junior starter Stephanie Brombacher (10-2)’s second career loss. Each of Brombacher’s losses have been to top-15 opponents, though her offense did not do her any favors only registering two hits throughout the course of the game. Cardinal pitcher Tegan Gerhart (8-1) earned the win with five strikeouts, though Enea was able to extend her hit streak to nine games with a double in the first inning.

4 » Picking up the slack Friday was the No. 4 Gators gymnastics squad (8-2, 5-1 SEC), which used a season-best total to take a triangular meet against the North Carolina Tar Heels (8-6) and Ball State Cardinal (5-9). Florida won the meet at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center with 197.55 points – the eighth highest total in school history. UF swept the event titles while two freshmen, Ashanée Dickerson and Marissa King shared the all-around title with a 39.475.

5 » Earlier in the day, No. 7 Gators men’s tennis (9-2, 1-0 SEC) opened its Southeastern Conference schedule with a 7-0 sweep of the Arkansas Razorbacks (8-5, 0-1 SEC) on the road in Fayetteville, AR. The No. 16-ranked doubles pair of redshirt senior Antoine Benneteau and junior Alexandre Lacroix swept their doubles match and also pulled off victories as singles (ranked No. 6 and No. 121, respectively).

6 » Also opening its SEC schedule against Arkansas on Friday was the No. 6 Florida women’s tennis team (10-2, 1-0 SEC), which matched the men with a 7-0 sweep of the No. 15 Razorbacks (10-3, 0-1 SEC). The Gators are now 162-1 all-time at home against conference opponents. Freshmen No. 11 Allie Will and No. 15 Lauren Embree each won singles matches, while the No. 6-ranked pair of Will and senior Marrit Boonstra were once again victorious in doubles competition.

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