Gators Softball Punches Ticket To Women's College World Series

After a 5-2 win over Georgia, the No.3 ranked Florida Gators softball team will be advancing to the Women's College World Series for the second straight year.

Florida came into today’s Gainesville Super Regional game with their season on the line after splitting the first two games of the series. 

Former SEC Freshman of the Year Keagan Rothrock pitched a complete game, giving up just four hits and two runs while striking out four. This season, Rothrock has compiled a 3.33 ERA through 118 innings pitched, striking out 96 batters.

As usual, Softball America Freshman of the Year Taylor Shumaker rose to the occasion, going 3-for-3 while driving in three of Florida’s five runs. The true freshman also hit her 22nd home run of the year, tying a single-season school record.

This season, Shumaker has tallied a .379 batting average while hitting a team-leading 22 home runs (second-most in the SEC) and driving in 86 runs (leading SEC in RBIs).

Grad transfer Rylee Holtorf drove in Florida’s other two runs while hitting her sixth homerun of the season in the fifth inning. 

The WCWS begins on Thursday, May 29, at Devon Park in Oklahoma City. Florida will face No. 6 Texas in the opening game at 12:00 p.m. ET. The tournament follows a double-elimination format until the championship game. If Florida wins, they'll advance to face the winner of the Oklahoma vs. Tennessee matchup. If they lose, they would enter the tournament's elimination bracket.

Last season, Florida advanced to the tournament's semifinal game before falling to Oklahoma 6-5 in an extra-innings heartbreaker.

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