Florida Gators
Texas Tech
UF, Texas Tech in Super Spotlight
Thursday, May 21, 2026 | Softball, Chris Harry
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Florida is the No. 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Texas Tech was tabbed as No. 11.
Neither is among the teams most mentioned with regard to winning the 2026 national title – that space has been mostly reserved for top-seeded Alabama, reigning NCAA champ Texas or annual powerhouse Oklahoma – but Game 2 of the Gainesville Super Regional was the one ABC elected to tab as its national game Saturday afternoon with its A-Team broadcast crew in the booth for what figures to be a rowdy environment at Pressly Stadium.
A big, bright light on the game, is how UF coach Tim Walton put it Thursday.
We have to go out there and take care of business, not just for Florida, but for the brand of softball and the NCAA, and show ABC what they're getting, said Walton, whose Gators (51-10) will open the series against the Red Raiders (55-6) Friday at 11 a.m. They're getting two great teams who are going to fight to go to the [Women's] College World Series.
Both got to Oklahoma City last year with very different results. The Gators were the first team eliminated, going a quick two and out. The Red Raiders, behind NIL ace NiJaree Canady, rolled to the championship series – ousting four-time defending champ OU along the way – before falling to Texas in the decisive third game of the title series.
Canady played her first two seasons at Stanford, where as a freshman she buzz-sawed through the Gators in their 2023 NCAA regional at Palo Alto, was named NCAA Player of the Year as a sophomore with the Cardinal, then hit the transfer portal and found funny money – a reported $1 million – from Texas Tech, which she instantly justified with the program's historic run in OKC.
Now, Canaday will be in the circle for the first time at KSP, backed by a Tech squad hitting .388 as a team, with four players batting over .400 and seven at .360 or better. Oh, and Canady (23-5, with a 1.42 ERA and 215 strikeouts) statistically just happens to be the second-best pitcher on the Raiders staff, with Kaitlyn Terry (24-1, 1.39 and 152 strikeouts), a transfer from UCLA, a wicked left-handed change of pace.
They have a really good collection of players, Walton said.
Including one familiar face.
Two really good teams playing softball, Tech junior second baseman Mia Williams said.
Williams, of course, manned second base for the Gators the last two years. The daughter of former UF basketball star Jason Williams started every game at Florida for two seasons, then opted to transfer after an All-Southeastern Conference sophomore season when she hit .335 with 19 homers. She's been an offensive terror for Tech, hitting .435, with 83 runs scored, 22 homers and 77 RBI.
Gators outfielder Cassidy McLellan, who arrived at UF as a freshman alongside Williams, was asked about facing her former teammate.
We're just focusing on the Gators, said McLellan, who has plenty on her plate this weekend as she makes her first career starts in a Super. Controlling what we can control and playing Gator softball.
supers in the swamp 🐊 pic.twitter.com/mhp45HMKVk
— Gators Softball (@GatorsSB) May 20, 2026
Better believe the ABC team of Beth Mowins, Michelle Smith, Jessica Mendoza and Holly Rowe will touch on the reunion during the broadcast Saturday.
Just like they'll touch on, for example, the magnificent sophomore season of UF centerfielder and slugger Taylor Shumaker. Or SEC wins leader Keagan Rothrock's expected workhorse role in the circle. Or catcher Jocelyn Erickson and shortstop Kenleigh Cahalan's selections in the recent Athletes Unlimited Softball League draft. Or third baseman Kendall Grover, the former Ohio Valley Conference superstar at Eastern Illinois, tasting her first Super experience. Or the emotion of the yellow-spashed Sunflower Saturday tradition at KSP. Or Walton seeking to reach his 14th WCWS in his 21 seasons.
There will be multiple storylines in the other dugout, as well.
There's a reason (lots of them, actually) that ABC saw this series as the sexiest one for Saturday's center stage national audience.
Everything we do from practice to training to recruiting is to get to this point; to have two games to go to the College World Series. That's what the focus has been all year; how to play our best softball when it matters most at the end of the year, Walton said. When you build a program, you want everybody you recruit to have an opportunity to compete at the highest level. That's what it's going to be this weekend. It's going to be packed.
Email senior writer Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu. Find his story archives here.
