Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – In case anyone had forgotten, Skylar Wallace was a first-team All-America shortstop and the 2023 Southeastern Conference Player of the Year after leading the nation in slugging percentage, as well as placing among the league's top three in average, on-base percentage, runs, triples, home runs, total bases, walks and stolen bases. 
 
Simply put, her offensive numbers were positively staggering. 
 
Roughly two-thirds of the way through the 2024 seasons, Wallace was on pace for a fifth-year season every bit as torrid as last year. She was hitting a nation-best .475 and the Gators were following suit in sticking around the top 10 in the rankings. 
 
Then came a 10-game run that was equal parts unfathomable and inexplicable, with Wallace going 2-for-31 at the plate – that's .065 – and her average plummeting more than 100 points. 
 
"There were times at night I was just crying in bed," she said.
 
Wallace is sleeping better these days, which means so is UF coach Tim Walton and the rest of the Gators. To say Wallace has emerged from her mini-slump would be like saying the universe is somewhat vast. 
 
When fourth-seeded Florida (46-12), winner of eight straight, opens NCAA Tournament play Friday at noon against Florida Gulf Coast (37-19) at Pressly Stadium, Wallace will be parked in her customary No. 3 hole and batting a robust .399, having rocketed her average up 31 points over the previous 10 games. How? By going 16-for-34, that's how, including a 7-for-9 rampage through the SEC Tournament last weekend when she helped lead UF to its first championship in the event in five years by setting tourney records for homers (3) and RBI (9) on the way to Most Outstanding Player honors. 
 
It would appear Wallace is back … with a vengeance.
 
"I never felt like we wouldn't get there," Walton said. "I just never felt it would take as long as it did." In games involving a bat and ball, such things can happen. When they happen to elite players, they not only stand out, but also can take a toll on that player's psyche. That's what happened with Wallace, who had a three-game stretch (two against LSU, one in an ugly midweek loss to South Florida) when she went 0-for-10. 
 
After that, she started pressing and uncharacteristically chasing pitches out of the zone. For a player who hit .447, slugged .980, posted an on-base mark of .595 and walked 51 times last season, this did not compute. Plate discipline was one of her greatest assets. 
 

Walton, though, sensed something else was going on. 
 
"I've done this long enough to know that seniors can slump for internal reasons and it's usually expectations they're battling," he said. "At some point in the season Skylar realized that some big goals she set for herself and was striving toward were not going to be realized. She really just started trying too hard." 
 
Sometimes it's that simple. Wallace was one of three finalists for NCAA Player of the Year last season and had designs on winning the award in '24. Hence the tears. The ones that kept her awake at night and the ones she shed in heartfelt one-on-one conversations with her coach. 
 
"I was putting so much pressure on myself – and that's normal. I understand that," she said. "I have my standards. I'm super competitive. I never want to see myself fail and never want to see my teammates fail."
 
Here's the rub: While Wallace was wrestling with her personal demons over those 10 games, the Gators went 3-7. They were failing together and something had to be done about it if the program was going to meet its objective of bouncing back from a 2023 campaign that ended with the first road regional elimination in nearly two decades. 
 
There were no mechanical adjustments to be made. Just mental ones. Toward the back end of the slump, Wallace made some good contact, but just wasn't getting hits. 
 
All the while, her hot-hitting teammates – fellow All-SECers Korbe Otis (nation-leading .467), Kendra Falby (.395), SEC Player of the Year Jocelyn Erickson (.389) and Reagan Walsh (team-high 16 homers) – provided unwavering encouragement. 
 
"It's a deep, dark hole and you don't want anyone to go through it," Falby said. "All we could do was feel for her. 'I've been there. You've been there. Everybody has.' The fact that she knew we had her back, told her we had her back and showed her we had her back … ." 
 
Falby paused for effect. 
 
"I mean, [last] weekend? What the heck!" What the heck is right. Wallace tortured the ball at the SEC Tournament into gaps and over the fences. Now comes the NCAA Tournament and her collegiate swan song. 
 
She'll go into it with confidence.

And so will the Gators, who have not lost since since April 27 and, assuming they get there, will host a Super Region next weekend after rocketing up from No. 15 in the NCAA ratings percentage index over the last three weeks to claim the tournament's No. 4 overall seed. 
 
"I didn't want it to happen, but I would not change it for anything," Wallace said. "Obviously, it was meant to happen for some reason and led me to where I am now; to be better, to be more prepared, to be a better leader in some way and a better teammate and competitor in some way."