GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Some very good Florida softball team made early exits from the Southeastern Conference Tournament over the years. Some would say the two bests, given that neither the 2014 nor '15 NCAA championship squads won the league's postseason event. UF coach
Tim Walton, it has been suggested, didn't always go all out to win
that tournament. For good reason.
"Because I didn't have to," said Walton, whose 2024 club won the tournament for the sixth time (and first since 2019) earlier this month. "This time, I thought we needed to win it to get a Super."
As in a NCAA Super Regional. As in the Gainesville Super Regional, with fourth-seeded UF (49-12) hosting to Baylor (35-21) in a best-of-three series that gets underway Friday at noon at Pressly Stadium. The winner will advance to the Women's College World Series in Oklahoma City next week.
Super Regionals at KSP used to be as reliable as the sun setting in the west, but the Gators will be playing their first at home since 2021 (when they were swept by rival Georgia with a pair of shutouts) and looking to claim their first home Super title since defeating Tennessee in three games in 2019.
Not quite a month ago, being at home at this stage of the season seemed unlikely, but that was before UF took off on its current 11-game winning streak, the first eight of which were victories over high-end Ratings Percentage Index opponents, including the three wins in the SEC Tournament at Auburn. Heading into postseason play, the Gators probably had a home NCAA regional locked up, but needed to stockpile fat RPI victories to get into the top eight and Super conversation. They did so in dominating fashion, beating Georgia, Texas A&M and Missouri -- three times still alive in NCAA play -- by a combined 22-8.
At last weeks' home regional, Florida whipped up on Florida Gulf Coast and South Alabama twice (combined score 24-2) to advance. After the final out was secured, first-year UF assistant coach
Francesca Enea, one of the all-time greats to come through the program, high-fived Walton and said, 'That's what we do."
Not lately, Walton reminded his former standout.
Remember, the Gators were on the road for the regional round last year and were eliminated at Stanford, for the program's earliest NCAA exit in 11 years. In '22, UF was on the road for the Super run, winning at Virginia Tech.
It would seem, though, Florida softball order has been restored. Now comes the reward. The friendly – and packed – confines of KSP figured to again pair nicely with an offense hitting a collective .342 (fifth in the nation) and the work of freshman
Keagan Rothrock (28-6, 2.36 earned-run average) in the circle, where's she's started the last seven games and given up only 10 earned runs on 40 hits over 46 innings. On Thursday, Rothrock was named one of three finalists for national freshman of the year.
"We're going to score as many as we can for our pitchers because they're out there battling for us," said catcher and 2024 SEC Player of the Year
Jocelyn Erickson, who ranks second in the nation with 78 RBI. "So we have to produce at the plate for them."
UF coach Tim Walton hopes to (and probably will, given his team's track record) wave a lot of runners around third base during the Gainesville Super Region against Baylor.
While Rothrock's number aren't going to stand up against the best pichers in the country, they don't need to. Not the way the Gators are hitting, what with their top five batters all garnering first-team All-SEC honors, led by left fielder
Korbe Otis, who at .463 ranks fourth nationally and is on pace to set a single-season team record for average, and shortstop
Skylar Wallace, the 2023 SEC Player of the Year, at .412, with a NCAA-leading 85 runs scored. Erickson, at .391.bats clean-up. Then comes
Reagan Walsh at .373 and a team-best 16 homers.
"It's awesome to play with," Otis said of the UF offense. "And must be awesome to watch for our fans."
Yes, especially at the Super level, where the home crowd definitely will do its part to help the Gators make it back to OKC for what would be a 12
th time.
To do so they'll have to go through the Bears, who are one of just two unseeded teams remaining in the 16-team field. Baylor upset host and 13-seed Louisiana in the Lafayette regional last weekend, despite losing the opener of the Sunday championship round 13-0. The Bears shook that one off and won the second game 4-3.
Baylor is battle-tested, having bounced back from a 1-8 start in the rugged Big 12 Conference, where league champion Texas emerged as the NCAA's overall No. 1 seed, followed by three-time reigning NCAA champion Oklahoma at No. 2. Oklahoma State is No. 5.
The Bears went a combined 1-9 versus the trio of Texas, OU and Okie State. They were 1-11, counting two losses to open the season against Tennessee, which checks in as the No. 3 overall seed. Heading into its date against the 4-seed, Baylor's 3.53 ERA ranks 153rd nationally and the Bears about to face one of the most lethal hitting teams in the country.
But they were good enough to make it this far, which means they're good enough to make it further.
"It's a Super regional," Walton said. "It's going to be tough."
That's why Walton tells his players to celebrate wins. Because they're hard.
UF would like nothing more than to take that Baylor record to 1-13 against the tournament's top five seeds. The Gators would love even more to do so (and celebrate the feat) at home.
That was the coach's plan heading into the SEC tourney. Turned out Super.
