Gainesville, Fla. – Top-seeded Florida scored four runs in the first and Lauren Hager made the lead stand up with a complete-game three-hit shutout as Hofstra fell to the Gators, 7-0, in the second day of the NCAA Gainesville Regional at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium Saturday afternoon.Hofstra fell to 38-13-1 in losing for just the second time in the last 15 games and will play the winner of the Florida Atlantic versus Florida A&M contest in an elimination game at approximately 6 p.m. on Saturday. Florida, the defending national champions, improved to 52-6 and advanced to the final round of the regional on Sunday needing to win just one more game to move on to the super regionals.Taylore Fuller hit a three-run first-inning home run to spark the Gators and Bailey Castro hit a solo home run in the sixth. Florida pounded out 15 hits in winning for the 20th time in 22 games and is ranked second in the NFCA national poll and first in the USA Softball poll. Florida is one of two teams (Michigan) to already crack the 50-win plateau this season.Florida entered the NCAA Tournament with two players on the USA Softball top-10 Player of the Year watch list in Haeger and second baseman Kesley Stewart. Hofstra senior starterretired Stewart on a pop out to start the game, but Kirsti Merritt singled and Haeger ignited Florida's first-inning rally when she chopped a RBI single to the left side. Following a pop out, the Gators saw the next batters reach safely with two outs. Nicole DeWitt legged out an infield single to move Haeger to second and Fuller hit her 13th home run; driving a full-count pitch to left-center that hit the brick column next to the scoreboard for the 4-0 edge.Haeger improved to 25-1 and registered her eighth individual shutout of the season in lowering her ERA to1.41. Pirone, who already set a career-high in wins this season, fell to 19-11.Pirone settled down after the first and stranded at least one runner in each inning until the fifth when Stewart's two-out single up the middle drove in two for the six-run cushion. Stewart reached 40 RBIs on the year in her first base hit in four at-bats.Florida was the first top-five ranked team Hofstra faced since defeating then-No. 5 Texas in 2013. Hofstra played Florida for the first time since 2008. The Pride is 0-9 all-time against the Gators.