Pitcher perfect

Posted Mar 26, 2010 by Aaron Oberlin

Updated Mar 25, 2010 at 11:13 PM

Fifty-six pitches, 15 batters, game over.

That pretty much sums up junior pitcher Stephanie Brombacher’s perfect game March 25 against South Florida, as the Gators won 10-0.

It was quick. It was simple. She retired several hitters within two pitches.

“I was just trying to put the ball in play. I just wanted them to put the ball where my defense could take care of it,” said Brombacher, who only threw five innings due to the 10-run rule.

Perfect games don’t come around often, but they seemed to have found a home with University of Florida softball players. Since 1997, Gators hurlers have thrown four of one the game’s rarest achievements. Even Brombacher, who hails from Pembroke Pines, Fla., last did it as a seventh-grader against Westminster Academy.

Jenny Gladding accomplished it the last time for UF on Feb. 7, 2004, winning 3-0 over Missouri. This time, she watched from the Florida dugout.

“I’m excited for [Brombacher],” said UF assistant coach Gladding. “When you go out to pitch, you just want to go out and give yourself a chance for a solid outing. She did that, and it was great to watch her pitch so well.”

The other two perfect games came from the arm of UF Hall of Famer Chelsey Sakizzie, who threw one in 1997 and one in ‘98.

“To be in a class with Gladding and Sakizzie is just amazing. To be put with them and have the fourth perfect game for Florida, I’m elated,” said Brombacher.

When Brombacher took the mound in the fifth inning, she knew the game would end if she could get through the inning without a run. Her team had scored two runs in the fourth, for a 10-0 lead. But she didn’t know a perfect game weighed on her right arm.

“I figured it out after Francesca (Enea) ran out of the dugout and knocked me down. She jumped on me, and I kind of caught her a second until we fell to the ground,” said Brombacher.

“You don’t think about things like that during a game. You focus on pitching, winning,” Gladding said.

But spectators do. When a perfect game is on the line, it’s like watching Jamal answer the big-money question in “Slumdog Millionaire”– all is quiet and nearly everyone knows what’s at stake. Fingers get crossed.

USF third basemen Alison Savarese took the breath out of the crowd at Katie Seashole Pressley Stadium when she smashed a grounder up the middle in the final inning. But Brombacher stuck her glove out, its edge catching the ball. She then threw to first for the out.

The final out came against Bulls catcher Cat Olnick, who grounded out to first on a 1-1 pitch. Brombacher has known her since she was 10 years old.

“Her parents congratulated me after the game, so did a lot of the girls on [South Florida,]” said Brombacher. “I know a lot of them. It was nice of them to congratulate me.”

Those who didn’t know Brombacher do now.