City of Alachua

University of Florida head softball coach Tim Walton will be one of the keynote speakers at the 2010 Babe Ruth 12-U Softball World Series Banquet of Champions to be held in early August.  Walton has led the Gators to a 133-10 record over the past two years with seven of their 10 losses by one run.  In 2008, they set the program’s best win streak with 37 victories in a row.

In 2007, the Gators broke 20 team records.  In 2008, they broke 32 and in 2009, they broke 28.  Their 70 wins in ’08 set an NCAA record and they currently hold the SEC record for home runs (86) and walks (274), set in 2009.

Head coach Tim Walton has coached 16 All-Americans, including three first-team selections, 20 All-SEC selections, including a two-time SEC Pitcher of the Year winner, 10 SEC All-Freshman team honorees, 11 SEC All-Tournament team members, including two MVPs, four Women’s College World Series All-Tournament Team members, 21 SEC Players of the Week, two National Players of the Week, 48 SEC Academic Honor Roll members and Florida’s first Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award winner.  He has won two SEC Coach of the Year honors and the Gator coaching staff has earned the NFCA Southeast Region Coaching Staff of the Year honor three times. 

Florida has won the Southeastern Conference title three times in school history, twice in the past two years.  Aside from LSU, UF is the only SEC school to take home more than two regular-season crowns.  The Gators have also collected back-to-back SEC Tournament titles in 2008 and 2009.

In 2009, Florida led the league in overall batting average (.323) and ERA (0.69) in overall and league games.  Four current Gators rank 11 times in the SEC record books and eleven former UF players claim 29 spots among the league’s elite.

In 2009, the Gators made the school’s second appearance in the Women’s College World Series, making it to the championship series for the first time in the program’s history.  They did it in dramatic fashion, as they defeated SEC-foe Alabama in a come-from-behind victory on a walk-off grand slam by then-senior Ali Gardiner. 

Florida has made the NCAA Tournament 10 times in its 13-year history, including the last seven years in a row.  The Gators have hosted the NCAA Regionals six times and the NCAA Super Regionals the past two years, advancing to the WCWS both times.

Prior to 2007, the Gators were 6-14 in the NCAA Tournament, but the last three years, they have won 20 postseason games and lost only five, including only one in the first round.

In the past two years, Florida has hit 42 extra-base hits, including 18 home runs, tallied 84 runs, recorded 73 RBIs and tallied 65 total hits.  In 149.2 innings of work, the UF pitching staff of Stacey Nelson and Stephanie Brombacher recorded 157 strikeouts, only 20 earned runs and 34 walks.