The Back Nine comes at you after a big weekend for Gator sports and a great Sunday for all of the mothers out there, especially my wife.
10. There is no way I can start this column without gushing about what happened on the softball field Sunday. If it wasn’t enough that Julia Cottrill hit the walk-off homer that gave Florida the No. 1 seed in the SEC Tournament and a share of the SEC title, her incredible slide tied the game up earlier on the day. And then she had a tooth chipped out by celebrating that sleight of hand slide when it collided with teammate Charla Echols’ batting helmet. And all that happened before she hit the no-doubter that allowed her team to go crazy. This has been a fun team to watch all season because even when things don’t go well early, you can never count these Gators out. I always caution against making too much of a performance or a game until we get a little distance from it, but that may have been the best story of a regular season performance in the history of Florida softball. Almost made me wish I could come out of retirement to write it. Ok, and she was ill all week, too. Some stories write themselves.