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FGCU in NCAA Women’s Softball Tournament for first time since 2012, draws the Florida Gators

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Florida Gulf Coast softball punched its ticket to the NCAA Women’s Softball Tournament in thrilling fashion on Saturday night, and will travel to Gainesville for the double-elimination tournament.

The Eagles (37-19) will face No. 4 overall seed Florida on Friday at noon. This is FGCU’s first berth in the tournament since 2012.

Joining them in the Gainesville Regional will be Florida Atlantic and South Alabama on the other side of the bracket.

The Eagles have seen the Gators (46-12) once already this season, falling 9-0 in five innings on March 20. The Eagles will face the newly-crowned SEC Champion Gators riding an eight-game win streak.

“I think right now, [Florida] is playing better,” FGCU head coach David Deiros said. “They’ve been on a roll as of late. The bats are starting to come around really 1-9. So I think it’s a very formidable lineup, and they can do some damage up and down the lineup. So we have to just be on our game from the first pitch to the very last. And we’ve already seen their top two pitchers, so we’ll have a good idea of what our expectation is off of them.”

FGCU is riding a wave of their own, lifting their second ASUN tournament trophy in program history. Deiros says there’s no doubt that the dramatic, extra-inning win over North Florida Saturday gives the Eagles a boost in confidence before heading to Gainesville.

Along with Florida, the Eagles have faced five different Power-5 schools this season, going 4-7 in those matchups and picking up marquee wins over Florida State and Boston College.

Deiros says those games have helped the Eagles stay prepared for big-time matchups.

“We had 11 Power-5s on the schedules, and it’s just for that reason, so we can run through the gauntlet that is ASUN play and be ready for the types of games that we played,” he said. “All four of our games were a battle in the ASUN tournament, and it’s really is a credit to our players that they they had the resilience and the fortitude to be able to make it through the tournament unscathed.”

Now, FGCU will prepare for a matchup against a Florida program that has made the tournament in 24 of its 29 seasons. The Gators have advanced to the Super Regionals 14 times, and won back-to-back championships in 2014 and 2015.

“The big emphasis for us, for example in the bullpen, is really work hard on our location,” Deiros said. “Making sure that we make it harder for them to fix in on any one location, because they’re good enough to sit on pitches and be able to make big swings and do damage. We have to be ready for their speed… they can wreak havoc with their bats as well as with their speed.

“And from our offensive perspective, we’ve seen them all. So it’s just a matter of being ready for what we’re going to get approached by, and be able to do damage when we have our opportunities.”

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