GAINESVILLE, Fla.– Both looked like they could still play.
Both had toddlers squirming in their arms.
And both wished they could go experience those days again, if only for a flash.
"When people ask me if I miss softball, the answer, of course, is yes, but I tell them what I really miss the most [are] the Gators," Hannah Rogers, now 32, said Sunday, holding her two-year-old daughter Ella, while tucked in a shady spot beneath the left field bleachers at Katie Pressly Stadium. "I would do anything to be able to come back and play, be with my teammates and maybe just try to enjoy it a little more."
Ditto, Kirsti Merritt, who if given an audience with the 2024 Florida softball team would encourage them to live in and embrace the moment. Every moment.
"It's so cliché, but if I did talk to them I would tell them that it all might seem like a lot – and sometimes it might seem really tough – but these are going to be some of the best times you'll have in your life," said Merritt, 29, flanked by daughters Harli and Blake. "It's hard to explain. Ten years ago we were waking up for 6 a.m.'s [workouts] and in a blink of an eye you're waking up at 6 a.m.with two kids who want to watch cartoons."
Ten years ago, Rogers and Merritt were deep in the throes of a Florida softball season that would be like none other before it. The 2014 Gators, of course, didn't know that at the time. Forty games in they were really good, at 32-8, but with a sub-.500 record in Southeastern Conference play having been swept at Tennessee.
Then Rogers went on a tear in the circle, with Merritt and the rest of the Gators teammates joining in on an electrifying run that ended in a dog pile at Oklahoma City – with Rogers at the bottom – and the first Women's College World Series title in program history.
A handful of players on the current '24 squad recall watching that team of a decade ago. They were 10-, 11-, maybe 12-year-olds who dared to dream of wearing orange and blue and being a Rogers, a Merritt, a Kelsey Stewart, a Lauren Haeger, an Aubree Munro or a Taylor Schwarz (take your pick).
Before Sunday's Game 2 of No. 10 Florida's big series against sixth-ranked LSU, a highlight video of that '14 team beamed off the center field JumboTron at KSP, with Rogers completing the anniversary commemoration by firing a ceremonial first pitch dead-solid-perfect down the middle of plate.
UF catcher Jocelyn Erickson, a Phoenix native who grew up idolizing Haeger, a fellow Arizonan, was on the receiving end of that pitch as well as an embrace for Rogers, the Most Outstanding Player of that CWS with four wins and a championship-clinching save in UF's five wins at OKC.
"This was like a full-circle moment for me," Erickson said.
The Gators appeared to have Sunday's game in hand – up a run with LSU down to its final strike – but the Tigers managed to tie the game in the seventh and won it in eight to even the series. The rubber game was Monday night, with UF returning the favor (x4).
Florida trailed 5-1 in the bottom of the sixth and scratched a run across on a bases-loaded walk. Junior Kendra Falby came to the plate with two outs and the bags still juiced and promptly lashed a line drive to the wall in left center for a bases-clearing triple that tied the game.
Again, the game went to extras, this time with the Gators winning it (and the series) in the eighth in a most bizarre fashion; but also a hustling fashion. With the game still tied, two outs and winning run at third, reigning SEC Player of the Year Skylar Wallace struck out swinging, but LSU catcher Maci Bergeron failed to secure the pitch, with Wallace taking off on a sprint to first and forcing the Tigers' catcher to make a hurried play. Bergeron air-mailed her throw into right field, scoring Brooke Barnard from third for a dramatic 6-5 victory, as the Gators claimed their fourth SEC series in as many tries this season, improved to 34-6 overall and remained just one game behind first-place Tennessee in the race for the SEC regular-season title.
Maybe a little 2014 mojo was at work.
"I remember watching them on TV and I just recall the amount of passion and grit they had for the game. You could tell their energy was always there. Even when they were down in the game or in a count, they always had composure like they were going to get the job down," said Wallace, who was a 13-year-old club team superstar when those Gators of 10 years ago were doing their thing. "I just remember them being really fiery and getting after it. I think we see that in this team a lot. There are just little moments when we lose sight of that because we just have so much pressure on us because we know our abilities."
Then there are times like Monday when they stare down that pressure and summon thoseabilities.
In an instant, an already nostalgic weekend became a rewarding one.
"This was pretty cool," Falby said of the old guard meeting the new guard. "It's like the stars are aligning."
HER. @kendrafalby 🟰 the difference maker ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/5TJTLQC3B2
— Gators Softball (@GatorsSB) April 9, 2024
The bridge to the two eras put a prideful smile on Coach Tim Walton's face – "I'm glad they recognize greatness," he said of the '24s – but so did the manner his current team scratched and clawed its way to the biggest series victory of the season. UF, aside from a few really good individual performances, did not play particularly well against LSU, yet managed to find a way to take two of three from an outstanding team; with freshmen in the circle for all 29 innings, no less.
"We got a lot of kids kind of swimming uphill here at times because it's so challenging and they want to do well," Walton said. "Some of our kids are trying to go 3-for-1 at times to try and make up for the two at-bats they had yesterday. It's just really hard to take it one day at a time and turn the page and do things to help your team win."
It takes time, but the best teams, the best players, figure it out. If they're truly lucky they'll have memories like Rogers, Merritt and company to fall back on.
And share with the next generation.
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