GAINESVILLE, Fla. – After working four innings of a sweltering, muggy, love-bugged morning-turned-afternoon first game of the NCAA Super Regional series Friday, starting pitcher Keagan Rothrock, her face a beet-red, went to the Florida locker room, stretched out on the floor and let the air-conditioning do its thing.
The girl was gassed.
The Gators were down a couple runs in a tight game against Texas Tech, but the UF coaching staff took a look at their ace and made the call. Tim Walton was thinking every bit as much about Saturday's pending Game 2 and (hopefully) a Sunday Game 3, relative to Rothrock's availability. Facing one of the most lethal hitting teams in the country, the Gators were going to need her all (again, hopefully) three days.
Against the UF bullpen, a 3-1 deficit eventually became a 10-8 Game 1 loss. On Saturday, however, the pseudo-rested Rothrock – who needed two post-game IV bags the day before to replenish – pitched a five-hit, complete-game gem in a 10-2 victory that forced a winner-take-Women's-College-World-Series-berth Game 3. And, of course, Rothrock the workhorse with a Southeastern Conference-high 30 wins, was back in the circle for her third start in as many days.
The result wasn't particularly surprising. The Red Raiders ripped Rothrock for eight runs on six hits and three home runs in just two innings (and a mere 16 batters faced) on the way to a 16-7 season-ending run-rule defeat of the Gators. Texas Tech combined for 30 runs and eight homers in the three-game series.
With that, UF's biggest, most obvious vulnerability was laid bare.
"You can't do it with one," said Walton, who several times over the last several weeks had referenced the need for someone – anyone besides Rothrock – on his pitching staff to step up and distinguish themselves if the Gators had any chance of making a deep run in the postseason. "That kind of lineup, giving them 14 looks at Keagan Rothrock, that really hurt a lot, not having another potential All American in the stable to come out and give us a chance."
Keagan Rothrockfinished her junior season with a 30-7 record, a 2.57 ERA and 209.1 innings pitch.
Florida entered the 2026 season with Rothrock and junior Ava Brown headlining the staff, but that plan was derailed when Brown suffered a lower-body injury in late-February. At the time, she was 5-0 with an ERA of 1.49 and spinning it as well as she had in her UF career.
But Brown's injury kept her sidelined for five weeks and, eventually, restricted her to designated hitter duties the rest of the season (save one unsuccessful test case in the circle). Maybe the Gators could have navigated the season better with Rothrock and a healthy Brown as her wing man, versus picking and choosing spots for Olivia Miller, Katelyn Oxley, Leah Stevens and Allison Sparkman, but the Brown-less group was no match for Texas Tech in what became a bad-blood Super series and unceremonious ending to a 51-win season.
Two years ago, Rothrock was a freshman who went 33-9 and started – get this – all 11 of the Gators' NCAA Tournament games and rode her to eight wins and the WCWS semifinals. It was an astounding collegiate debut that proved her mettle and willingness to do whatever it took for her club. Her mindset never changed.
* 2026 Stat: Rothrock's 209.1 innings pitched were 147 innings more than next-best Miller's 62.1 innings and accounted for 52% of the team's workload in the circle for the season.
"She's one of the best teammates you'll ever find," junior first baseman Madison Walker said.
But two years ago, she also had Brown, her fellow freshman, to make 21 starts and 34 appearances. Brown was there last season, as well, when UF also reached Oklahoma City.
To be great this time of year, it takes two elite arms. At least.
The best teams of Walton's 21 Hall-of-Fame seasons, fans will recall, had three great pitchers.
The Gators, presumably, will have Rothrock and a healthy Brown again next season, but also five-star recruit Caroline Stanton, who enrolled in January and used the 2026 campaign as a redshirt season to get an early acclimation into the program. Stanton was the headliner of a UF signing class ranked second in the nation.
"She's got a long ways to go still," Walton said of Stanton, who was the nation's No. 1-rated recruit of her class after winning three consecutive Class 6A state championships at Buford (Ga.) High. "She's a great kid and a hard worker. She's not a swing-and-miss pitcher. She's going to really have to rely on her movement, but at some point in time she'll be a high [velocity pitcher]."
As a redshirt freshman, Stanton, who celebrated her 18th birthday with her UF teammates last week, should give the Gators a formidable trio in the circle.
And that'll definitely be better than leaning on just one.
The Gators were down a couple runs in a tight game against Texas Tech, but the UF coaching staff took a look at their ace and made the call. Tim Walton was thinking every bit as much about Saturday's pending Game 2 and (hopefully) a Sunday Game 3, relative to Rothrock's availability. Facing one of the most lethal hitting teams in the country, the Gators were going to need her all (again, hopefully) three days. 
