GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Sophomore outfielder Taylor Shumaker had three hits, including a three-run homer, and five RBI to lead sixth-seeded Florida to a breezy 12-0 shutout victory over Florida A&M in Friday's opening round of the NCAA Tournament Gainesville Regional at Pressly Stadium.
Senior catcher Jocelyn Erickson also had three hits, two of them doubles, and scored three times. Junior Keagan Rothrock(27-6) worked the first three innings and struck out six before giving way to Katelynn Oxley and Leah Stevensto close out the shortened, mercy-rule game. The UF trio combined to allow just one hit and two additional baserunners on a walk and hit batter.
Shumaker and Erickson combined to go 6-for-7 with nine total bases.
The Gators took a 1-0 lead in their first when Erickson scored on a ground-rule RBI double by Kenleigh Cahalan. The home team added four in its second on an RBI single from Shumaker, two-run double by Ava Brown and sacrifice fly from Townsen Thomas to make it 5-0.
UF scored three more runs in third and four in the fourth, with of three of the latter coming on Shumaker's 16th homer of the season.
Taylor Shumaker (left) and Gabi Comia share a chest bump after both scored on a third-inning double steal in Friday's opening-round of the NCAA Gainesville Regional.
PLAY OF THE GAME: UF led 6-0 when Erickson stepped to the plate with runners on first and third with one out in the third. On the first pitch from reliever Sariah Espada, Shumaker took off on a steal attempt of second. The baited throw immediately sent Gabi Comia, who had two hits on the day, dashing home from third for a double steal attempt. Both runners were easily safe, but an error on the Rattlers' catcher allowed Shumaker to circle all the way home from second and make the score 8-0, putting the eight-run mercy rule in play early.
STAGGERING STATISTIC: FAMU starter Zoryana Hughes faced 16 batters through her two innings, exiting after walking the leadoff hitter in the third. She threw 66 pitches, only 28 for strikes (42.4%), and went to three-ball counts on nine of the hitters she faced (and hit another on a first pitch).
UP NEXT: Florida (49-10) will face the winner of Friday's second game pitting Texas State (38-20), the field's No. 2 seed, against Georgia Tech (30-27). That second-round game is set for Saturday at 10 a.m., with the winner advancing to Sunday's championship round and, with the double-elimination, needing to win just one of two games against Saturday's survivor to move on to next weekend's NCAA Super Region round. The Rattlers (32-21) fell into the loser bracket.
QUOTES
* Coach Tim Walton (Opening statement): "We had a good start to the game, with the way we set the tone. I thought the top of the lineup did what the top of the lineup is supposed to do. With that, we score a lot of runs. With Gabi at the bottom and Taylor, Jocelyn and Ava I thought we had some really good at-bats, obviously, in scoring every inning. Keagan did a good job setting the tone from the beginning. We set a goal of coming out and mashing the ball a little bit, and I thought we did that today."
* Taylor Shumaker (on the UF offense): "It always feels nice to think that your lineup is coming together. We've always had a cohesive lineup and the ability to build off each other was something we really stressed this week, to have one good at-bat turn into two good at-bats. I thought we did a really good job of manufacturing runs that way."
* Joceyln Erickson (After starting the first game so strong, what's the message in the locker room for the next game): "It just goes back to keeping it simple, not thinking too much not about outcomes or outside fans. We're just focusing on ourselves.
NOTABLES
Taylor Shumaker hit Florida's 100th home run of the season. The Gators have hit 100 or more home runs in three straight seasons and five times in program history
Shumaker has now hit five home runs in NCAA Tournament games in her career
The sophomore scored three runs against the Rattlers, bringing her season total to 84 runs, the second-most runs scored in a single-season in program history
Jocelyn Erickson matched her career-high of two doubles, bringing her season total to 17, matching Shumaker for a team-high
Erickson now has 46 doubles as a Gator, which ranks as the seventh-most in program history
The Gators have now won six straight NCAA Regional games by run-rule going back to the 2024 season
With five doubles against FAMU, Florida now has 111 on the season, one double shy of matching the program single season record of 112 which was set in 2024
The Gator pitching staff has combined for 17 shutouts
UAA communications director Lauren Staff contributed to this report.
Email senior writer Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu
