Florida Slugger Francesca Enea’s Busy Sunday: Set Home Run Record, Accept Proposal

It was the Florida softball team’s Senior Day on Sunday, which meant that Francesca Enea was going to get honored. But it’s safe to say the day was probably more special in practice than it was in theory, what with the record-breaking homer and the proposal and all.

Enea turned on an inside fastball and launched her 61st career homer in the third inning of a game against South Carolina, breaking the SEC career home run record. That wasn’t a surprise: Enea, who has recovered from two ACL tears in her collegiate career, holds a slew of other UF and SEC records and her twenty dingers this year will probably help her to a third straight Easton All-American team. It was the proposal, though, that shocked the Gators star.

⇥But to Enea’s somewhat surprise, during the pre-game ceremony, her boyfriend, Christian Bruey, came from the stands and proposed in front of 1,186 cheering Gator fans.⇥⇥“I had a dream two years ago and I was like ‘I had a dream that you proposed to me on senior day’,” said Enea. “He was like, ‘That’ll never happen because I’ll never make that much money for the ring you want. And I was like ‘Yeah, you’re probably right’. He said he couldn’t make it here today...so I didn’t think it was going to happen today.”⇥

All together now: awww. (Longtime blog readers may remember Bruey as the guy who put together a list of SEC hotness, as Alligator Army notes, but he and Enea have been together for years, so theirs will hopefully be a long and happy marriage.)

An NCAA championship and the ring that comes with it is what will likely be on Enea’s mind for the rest of this year, however: Florida flamed out of the Women’s College World Series in 2008 and 2009. Even a title might not top this special Sunday for Enea personally, but if she leads this team to the program’s first title, she may be remembered as the greatest player UF softball has ever seen. That has a ring to it, no?

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