No. 8 Florida Softball Set to Face Arkansas

The No. 8 Florida softball team (23-5) travels to No. 12 Arkansas (22-8) Friday night for a top 15 SEC matchup. This will be the first of three games against the Razorbacks starting Friday and ending on Sunday. Florida is coming off four straight losses against Arkansas last season including their exit in the SEC tournament.

Florida Softball Look to Continue Hot Streak

The Gators are coming off a 4-1 win against the Stetson Hatters Wednesday, winning six of their last seven. Catching up with Arkansas Softball Head Coach Courtney Deifel, she gave insight on what she sees in Florida and who she thinks is the key difference-maker in the Gator team.

Skylar Wallace is a redshirt junior who was named to the 2022 All-SEC First Team and was a 2022 USA Softball Player of the Year Top 25 Finalist. Diefel says she believes that Florida’s offense will be as good as how much Wallace makes them.

Arkansas Hopes to Beat Florida

Last time the Gators faced the Razorbacks, it ended in defeat for Florida in the SEC tournament. Arkansas won two of their last three games against No.8 Alabama heading into their matchup against Florida on Friday. Diefel spoke about what has gone right this season for the team.

Diefel says that the Arkansas team has a healthy mix of freshman and upperclassmen which has allowed them to grow and develop a quicker learning curve.

The Razorbacks have had four pitchers make 10+ appearances. Two of those pitchers are freshmen, but Diefel says that their number one pitcher is senior Chenise Delce, who won SEC pitcher of the year and SEC Tournament MVP last season.

Arkansas Defense

While Arkansas has last year’s SEC pitcher of the year, the Razorback’s defense is equally as impressive, with a fielding percentage of 0.975. Delce gave her take on how good she feels the Razorbacks are playing defensively.

Florida will take on Arkansas away on Friday at 7 p.m.