Florida softball All-American Francesca Enea was having an off night until she singled in the middle of Florida’s dramatic rally in the bottom of the seventh.

Before that she had made an error that cost UF a run, struck out badly in the fifth with a runner on second and failed to make a diving catch on a fly ball that turned into a double.

But Enea was dealing with a distraction. If you saw her wearing a sleeve on her right arm it was because she was bitten by an ant while stretching a couple of days ago. Enea is allergic to ants and the bite caused a reaction. She wore the sleeve so she wouldn’t scratch the affected area.

There’s a tidbit for you from Oklahoma City. Also, I failed to mention in my game story an interesting side note to the tournament. All of Florida’s 10 runs have come on home runs in the first three games.

Texts were flying into my cell phone and calls coming rapid-fire Sunday night after Ali Gardiner’s dramatic walk-off grand slam to beat Alabama. My wife said she has never screamed so loud in her life, so loud that it scared my 8-year old.

It was that special. And it got me thinking about where it would rank among my favorite moments covering Florida athletics.

OK, so I’m list-obsessed. But here they are:

1. Terry Jackson’s sprint to the end zone and dive over the goal-line to secure Florida’s first national football title.

2. Brad Wilkerson’s grand slam to beat Florida State in the 1996 College World Series. He also got the save.

3. Gardiner’s slam, made even more special by her emotions in the postgame press conference. Her father Wally played baseball at Florida 35 years ago and dreamed of his daughter wearing a Gator uniform. But who could have dreamed of this?

4. Mike Miller’s shot at the buzzer to beat Butler in the 2000 first-round NCAA game in Winston-Salem.

5. Kerwin Bell’s two-point conversion against Auburn on a bad knee in 1986.

Second five: Corey Brewer’s three-point play to beat Georgetown in the 2006 Sweet 16 game; Tim Tebow’s jump pass to David Nelson to secure Florida’s national title in Miami; the Oh-Fours announcing, “We back, baby!”; Derek Nicholson’s walk-off hit to send Florida to Omaha in 1998; Danny Wuerffel to Jacquez Green against Alabama in the 1996 SEC title game.

I feel like I have been here so long I should have voting rights in the state of Oklahoma. I’m not complaining even though I missed my daughter’s 8th birthday. She didn’t seem to mind thanks to a mother who made the day and night incredible for her.

My Saturday was spectacular thanks to the Gators winning two in a row. Worked during the day, had oysters for lunch on the patio of the Bourbon St. Cafe, dinner at the Bricktown Brewery with the members of the Florida communications department and nightlife at my favorite blues bar.

The Biting Sow was rocking last night and it was good to see Doc Blues belting out some songs. He has a really tight band and the place was packed. It was good to see the gorgeous Gloria and the Ashley Judd look-a-like Jessica as well.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — if you are in Oklahoma City and don’t spend an evening at the Biting Sow it means you don’t like music, inexpensive drink prices, great service and good times.

At dinner I was discussing softball strategy and questioning the moves of some of the coaches in this tournament. Hey, it doesn’t take that long for me to become an expert.

Miss the wife and Kelsey. Also getting a little nervous about the 15th Bob Dooley Invitational. Not much I can do for the event out here. It’s going to be a busy June.

Another late night in Oklahoma City. I got back to my room around 1:30 Eastern time and of course there had to be something going on outside my room. At about 2:30, I looked out my window and there were two cop cars with the lights going. I didn’t even bother to check it out. The road outside my window must be the crime center of Bricktown.

The Gators get today off but did have a light practice today while they wait to see who they play. That has been the most difficult part of covering this event. Not the late-night games on deadline or the freezing press box with no internal public address system. The most difficult thing has been figuring out the bracket because teams switch brackets during the tournament.

It didn’t help that the NCAA official Web site had it wrong. And the local newspaper has had it wrong twice. It’s very confusing. When I picked up the paper this morning, I thought I had blown it. But it turns out I was right.

I was coming into the hotel this morning and saw a bus with WSU Shockers on the front. There are a lot of youth softball teams here, but why Wichita State? Turns out it was the baseball team which is playing in the Norman regional. Norman is about a half-hour away.

“Pain in the butt,” one of the assistants told me.

I chatted up the coach and the WSU athletic director about the regional, but they wanted to talk about Tim Walton. Walton came to Florida from Wichita State, and they are proud of what he has done at Florida.

Lot of work to do today even with Florida having no game. We’re starting a special series on Monday. Hope you enjoy it.

It was a late night at the softball stadium for your intrepid reporter. It didn’t help that I got lost on the way back to the hotel (so much for familiarity with Oklahoma City), and that two guys at the gas station where I stopped got into an argument about the best way to find my hotel.

But I finally settled in to watch SportsCenter at about 2 a.m. Eastern time. A half hour later, I heard a bang outside my window. I looked out and saw a man throwing something at what I perceived to be my rental car. He jumped into an SUV and took off down Reno Ave.

I went outside and found that his target was the car next to mine that looked a lot like mine. He had shattered the front window in two places. I went to the security guard and told him about it. No telling if it was intentional or a random act of idiocy. I was just relived it wasn’t my car.

So I had a hard time going to sleep and nodded off around 4 in the morning. Slept late and went for a walk/jog around the canal behind my hotel. This really is a great place with great landscaping and huge iron-cast statues of Oklahoma settlers at one end of the canal.

Ended up with a late lunch at Toby Keith’s I Love This Bar and Grill. I’m not much for country music but I recommend it highly. It’s huge with a vaulted ceiling and tons of memorabilia. There is a back patio overlooking the canal and a big fire grill with dozens of rotisserie chickens spinning.

Should be another late night tonight with the Gators facing Michigan at 9 p.m. Eastern, which really means around 10. Let’s see if Florida can handle one of the hottest teams in America.

I wrote this week about how the Florida softball team is more familiar with the College World Series here in Oklahoma City. That goes for your intrepid beat writer as well.

It’s like old school for me here. Didn’t even need directions from the airport.

On my morning walk I did find something I didn’t see the last time I was here. Not far from Bricktown there are Botanical Gardens. Right in the middle of the city there is a piece of property that is amazing with dancing water shows, a crystal bridge and beautiful scenery.

Now, before you think I’m getting in touch with my feminine side, I did have dinner at Mickey Mantle’s last night. Can you hear me flex? That place is awesome. Also made a pit stop at the Biting Sow, but Doc Blues wasn’t in until later and I was exhausted after a Southwest flight that went from Jacksonville to Tampa to Houston to Oklahoma City.

I underpacked for this trip. It’s actually chilly in the morning and evening here. And it’s difficult to get a sweat going. Before I left, I worked up a sweat just carrying my bags to the car.

While this week has been about the SEC baseball tournament, the sports talk shows have been more about what will happen next week in Destin. That and the five police officers who lost their jobs when a tape was released revealing them beating a man they had been chasing.

Steve Spurrier called me this week and wondered whether I was going to cover the Lane Kiffin Show? (Robbie Andreu will be there for The Sun). Spurrier intimated that Kiffin will get the cold shoulder from many of the SEC coaches for the comments he has made this off-season.

On the other hand, the word here is that Mike Slive is going to lecture the coaches about acting with dignity and end the sniping. Slive has always wanted any coaches with an issue to go through him rather than speak publicly. We in the media like it the other way.

And if you have noticed around the country, other conferences are meeting and coming up with cost-cutting moves. One SEC administrator said there is talk of the league eliminating media guides. Some conferences have reduced football squads and are doing away with gifts given to players at conference tournaments.

It should be an interesting SEC meeting in Destin. Have fun, Robbie.

So how many gator fans are in attendance at the SEC Tournament? Oh, maybe two dozen and most of them are related to the players on the field. One reason there are never any Gator fans at this event is because Gainesville is 7 1/2 hours away.

That’s why this second game feels like a road game. Oxford is three hours from Hoover and the rebel fans are making a lot of noise.

But the truth is that there wouldn’t be a lot of Gator fans in the crowd unless the tournament was in Gainesville. Florida fans travel for two things.

1 Football.

2. Ultra-successful teams in other sports.

And by that I mean men’s basketball in the second season of the back-to-backs. The Gator Nation likes to pride itself on its zeal but that passion tends to be revealed on couches across America and not in the stands around the Southeast.

We saw that with the embarrassing turnout for the SEC basketball tournament in Tampa. Sure, the economy can’t be blamed for some of it, but Gator fans are already checking out airline fares to Pasadena.

Because that’s about football.

The Gator Nation is everywhere, they say. So why isn’t it in Hoover?

So here I am back in Hoover, Ala., the town that sidewalks forgot. And I’ll be back here in July for the SEC Media Days.

We can complain all we want about how the SEC seems to be slanted towards the West because the office is in Birmingham, but the people here in Hoover do a wonderful job with the SEC baseball tournament.

It’s a big-time park, the volunteers are friendly and the weather is unbelievable. Warm, but not too hot. Blue sky. Nice breeze.

It is a little weird to find a big park like this in the middle of a neighborhood but it is what it is. My only complaint is the awful music they are playing between innings — country and heavy metal ballads.

It looks like the Gators left their bats and gloves back in Gainesville. Three hits, four errors. That’s no way to win a game.

Greetings from behind the 17th tee where the Benefactors Tent is set up at The Players. Hey, it’s a tough job but someone has to do it.

I watched the first group come through here on Sunday. Actually, it wasn’t a group but just one player — Aaron Baddeley. He was playing as a onesome and breezed through the 17th hole 36 minutes ahead of the next group.

Baddeley shot a 66 making birdies on all three holes of the Bermuda Triangle — 16, 17 and 18.

By the way, this is no longer Ponte Vedra Beach. I have renamed it SunDress City. I guess they are making a comeback and I approve of this message.

Drove down to St. Augustine to see my mom on Mother’s Day and we took the Vilano bridge to see Tiger Woods’ yacht. Whoever said money can’t buy happiness has never seen the “Privacy.”

Should be an interesting final round. Alex Cejka’s lead is already down to two.