With one out in the bottom of the seventh, her team trailing by one and a national championship on the line, then-junior Francesca Enea stepped up to the plate and did what she’s done countless times in her U. Florida career — she delivered.
Enea crushed a double down the left-field line, but could then only watch as the final two outs were recorded and the Washington Huskies celebrated their 2009 NCAA championship, dashing Florida’s hopes of winning it all for the first time in school history.
A title has been about the only thing that has eluded Enea in her time as a Gator.
The senior left fielder has set eight Florida and Southeastern Conference hitting records, spent an entire season playing through injury, led the team both vocally and by example all year, directed numerous community service projects and even accepted a marriage proposal on the field.
Despite all that, there’s still one thing Enea hasn’t done: win a national championship.
“Not many teams can say they walked away with a national championship under their belt,” Enea said. “So many girls around here or at other schools have broken records and that’s great, but being able to say that you won a national championship with your team would be irreplaceable.”
Tough as nails
When Enea first set foot on Florida’s campus four years ago, she had no idea her career could blossom into what it has become today.
The then-catcher described herself as just an average offensive player — certainly not someone who would go on to set the SEC career home run record with 61.
“I never thought I would be much of a home-run hitter,” Enea said. “I thought maybe I got lucky whenever I hit one out, so my success the last couple years has kinda surprised me.”
Just looking at Enea’s freshman numbers, it would be pretty easy to assume her assessment was accurate.
During the 2007 season, in which she played just 48 games due to a knee injury, Enea hit a meager .227 with only six home runs and 22 RBIs.
While those numbers may have been a detriment to her career statistics, the lessons she learned from that down year have proven to be invaluable.
“It just taught me that I can get out pretty easily and that sometimes you won’t be as successful as you want to be, but you can’t let that factor into how well the team is going to do,” Enea said. “It taught me to take each at-bat and learn from it, to not get down when I get out but instead learn from every at-bat and every play and that’s what helped me the most.”
Even once she put her freshman season behind her and learned how to deal with her mistakes, Enea continued to face adversity.
In the fall of 2008, she suffered a tear on the same ACL that sidelined her during a stretch of her freshman campaign.
An injury of that nature would typically lead to season-ending surgery, but instead Enea chose to tough it out, playing the entire 2009 season in pain.
She finished the year with 18 homers and a single-season record 70 RBIs while posting a .339 batting average.
While Enea was battling through injury and willing herself to one of the greatest seasons in UF softball history on just one knee, she still felt sorry for the team more than herself.
“I think it really affected the team more than it affected me,” Enea said. “I felt bad when I couldn’t get to balls in the outfield and I couldn’t make turns running the bases. I just felt I couldn’t be as great for the team as I wanted to be.”
On the surface it appears that the injury has healed and things are back to normal, but there are still numerous occasions where it is obvious Enea will never be back to 100 percent.
During a game on May 8 against South Carolina, Enea spent nearly a minute on the ground after taking what appeared to be a routine swing, clearly experiencing considerable pain.
“Unfortunately I’ve had knee problems all through my life,” Enea said. “As I’m getting older it’s getting harder to deal with but I’m just trying to push myself through. I’m just going through every day taking care of business, seeing whatever doctors I have to so that I can finish the season and do well in my future career.”
Not surprisingly, Enea finished the at-bat and is yet to miss a start this season.
Been there, done that
When a player deals with as much adversity as Enea has over the years, it seems that leadership comes naturally both on and off the field.
In terms of Florida softball, Enea offers a level of experience that only fellow senior Corrie Brooks can match, as they are the only two players who have been through both the ups of a trip to the Women’s College World Series final and the downs of a 22-loss season in their freshman seasons.
While all of the team’s sophomores and juniors already understand the importance of not putting too much pressure on themselves and just trying to have fun in big games like those in the SEC and NCAA Tournaments, only Enea and Brooks can speak to the importance of bouncing back from losses and keeping everything going in the right direction.
“In the beginning of the season Corrie and I talked to them and we said, ‘Listen, we aren’t going to win every game this year,’” Enea said. “We told them that we’re going to lose a little bit more, and how successful we can be is based on how we bounce back from those losses.
“Now we aren’t afraid to lose, we just know what its like and we’re not gonna let that happen.”
It is this hard-working, never-quit attitude that has made Enea not just the player she is today but also the person she is today — someone who has spent countless hours giving back to the Gainesville community.
Over her four years she has organized the Swing for Cancer event, was the co-chair of the Climb for Cancer Sport Camps and was the catalyst behind the team’s “adoption” of a 13-year-old girl with a brain tumor via the Friends of Jacyln Foundation.
She has also been heavily involved with CAMP Gator, GatorTracks, Habitat for Humanity, the Special Olympics, Miracles on Main, and even squeezes in weekly visits to Shands Hospital.
“I do all that just for the simple fact that I can do it,” Enea said. “The University of Florida provides you with so many outlets to get involved so why not take advantage of it?”
A dream come true
Although Enea will leave Florida with the career records for home runs (61), RBIs (220) and slugging percentage (.646), the most memorable moment of her career might have nothing to do with softball.
In what can only be described as one of the most remarkable Senior Days in the history of UF athletics, Enea experienced not only the traditional festivities but also a surprise marriage proposal that left herself and everyone else in the stadium in shock.
While Enea, her family and coach Tim Walton posed for a picture alongside Enea’s framed jersey and bouquet of flowers, Christian Bruey, a UF alumnus and Enea’s boyfriend of three years, sneaked up behind the group and dropped to a knee.
Enea, who quickly said yes, was taken aback by the presence of Bruey, who gave Enea the impression he wouldn’t be able to attend the Senior Day celebration.
“He said he wasn’t going to be able to make it and I was giving him crap about it for weeks and saying he was going to be in the dog house if he didn’t come on time,” Enea said. “Then all of a sudden I heard someone shout his name out from the crowd and I looked and saw him and he didn’t waste any time, he went right down on one knee and I was just shocked.”
Thanks to some clever planning by Bruey, who first met Enea while doing the radio broadcasts for Gators softball during her freshman year, only a small group of people knew that such a plan was in the works, least of all Enea.
And although the senior was blindsided by Bruey’s unexpected proposal, it turns out the plan was actually Enea’s idea all along.
“I had a dream about it two years ago,” Enea said. “So I said to him, ‘Oh I had a dream that you proposed to me on Senior Day,’ and he said ‘Well that’ll never happen because I’ll never make enough money for the ring you want.’ So I said ‘Yeah you’re probably right,’”
Enea was able to follow the pregame theatrics with her SEC-record-breaking 61st career home run, but she is now only concerned with putting the day behind her and focusing on what is still left to be accomplished.
“It was a great day and I don’t think I could stop smiling, but now the day’s over and I’m just trying to move on and not get distracted by it,” Enea said.
Because with just three weeks to go in her Florida softball career, Enea and her teammates are honing in on the only thing that has managed to elude them the last three years — a national championship.