GAINESVILLE, Fla. – For the first time in program history, the Florida softball team earned a series victory over the top team in the nation, downing No. 1 Oklahoma, 6-4, on Saturday afternoon at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium.

The sold-out crowd of 2,653 fans in attendance ranks as the third-largest crowd in program history.

For the first time in the series, Florida (43-13, 14-10) got on the board first, plating a run on a Reagan Walsh sacrifice fly.

After holding Oklahoma (43-7, 17-7 SEC)  scoreless in the second inning, the Gators added to their lead in the home half of the second.

Florida loaded the bases in the frame, before Korbe Otis doubled to centerfield, scoring Taylor Shumaker and Jocelyn Erickson to go ahead, 3-0.

The Sooners chipped away at the lead with a solo home run in the fourth inning and a sacrifice fly in the fifth inning to make it a 3-2 game.

The Gators put up a crooked number on the scoreboard in the sixth inning, scoring three runs on a pair of hits, including an Ava Brown solo home run, and an Oklahoma throwing error to go up 6-2.

The Sooners, down to their final three outs, refused to go down, hitting a one-out two-run home run to make it a two-run game.

Brown was able to secure the series victory and her second straight save, getting the next two outs with a strikeout and a ground out.

Keagan Rothrock (12-5) picked up the win in the circle, pitching four innings, allowing two earned runs with three strikeouts and allowing just one walk.

NOTABLES:

• Reagan Walsh finished the weekend batting a team-best .700 (7-for-10) against the Sooners with five RBI, a pair of walks and one home run

  • Walsh put the Gators on the board in the first inning with her 22^nd career sacrifice fly, becoming the program’s new career leader
  • The senior has six sacrifice flies on the season, a new single-season program record

• Taylor Shumaker batted .556 (5-for-9) in the series with a home run and a double, while plating a team-high three runs

  • With 63 runs on the season, Shumaker is now tied with Kendra Falby (2022) for most runs scored by a freshman in program history
  • Shumaker also recorded her 17^th double, which ranks seventh-most in a season in program history. Ashley Boone (2001) holds the single-season program record of 20

• Ava Brown hit her second home run of the series, a solo shot in the bottom of the sixth. It’s the second time this season she has hit home runs in back-to-back games

  • Brown has hit seven home runs this season, including four in the last six games

• For the second game in a row, Brown picked up a save in the circle, her fourth of the season and sixth of her career

  • She allowed just one hit in three innings pitched, a two-run home run in the seventh, with a strikeout

• Kenleigh Cahalan, who went 2-of-3 at the plate with a triple, Florida’s eighth triple of the season

  • Cahalan has now recorded six triples in her career, with this being her first as a Gator

• Florida hit six home runs against Oklahoma, bringing the Gators’ season total to 95, the fourth-most home runs in a single season in program history
• The Gators finished the regular-season with five SEC series victories: at No. 5/4 Texas A&M, at No. 25/RV Auburn, at No. 19 Ole Miss, vs. No. 22/17 Alabama and vs. No. 1 Oklahoma

HEAR FROM THE GATORS:
Opening statement …
“Obviously Congratulations to Oklahoma for winning the regular season. You know I found out last night, I obviously didn’t follow the scores too well but seven losses, it tells you what kind of a league this is. This is one of the toughest regular seasons I can remember, just top to bottom. Just how many good players there are in this league, up and down every lineup, it’s crazy. So, you know, that’s first. Second, that’s the best regular-season crowd we’ve had. Not only the fans in attendance, but the way they were using their voices, the timely voices, the intensity, the energy. And I’m obviously not everywhere in the stands, but the positivity with it too, just being able to cheer on the Gators and really work hard for us. And then to recognize just how dang special Kendra Falby is in the outfield. What a day she had and what a weekend she had for us defensively. We grinded. We obviously had a really big opportunity on Thursday night, but just to see us bounce back and play really flawlessly defensively the last two games was great. Pitching was good enough and offensively we were just really, really clutch.  We had a lot of nice hits today. Obviously that last, the sixth inning was needed. I’m really, really proud of the energy and the excitement and the bats all the way through the lineup. – head coach Tim Walton

On being able to bounce back from a series-opening loss …

“Well, we beat a No. 1 pitcher, probably one of the better pitchers in the country and one of the best pitchers in our league right now. We beat a No. 1 today so that was huge. I think Thursday, really, for me was, I wasn’t very happy on Thursday night. But it showed us how good we are. I think that was the key. I think we grew a lot in confidence on that day. We sac bunted; we don’t bunt a ton. We moved a runner over, we had a chance to win the game, we didn’t, they did. So, ultimately, I thought we learned a lot.” – head coach Tim Walton

On her thoughts during Kendra’s home run robbery…

“Oh my gosh, it was hit off the bat and I was like ‘oh okay’ and then I saw Kendra and was like ‘oh that’s caught.’ Like every day that’s caught; there was absolutely no doubt that it wasn’t going over the fence. She was catching it in my mind.” – sophomore Keagan Rothrock

 

On her success in robbing home runs this season…

It’s interesting because I’ve never caught a ball over the fence until Texas A&M. That was my first-ever catch over the fence. How it’s like multiplied, I’m like, ‘wow okay this is fun’ because I’ve never done it before. I always dreamed of doing that. Katie Kistler always did all the cool ones, so I really wanted one. Then I went to Texas A&M and did the first one and I texted Coach (Aric) Thomas that night and was like ‘hey, that was my first ever over the fence that I’ve ever caught.’ But I can’t do it without the people next to me because I trust them with everything within me to know that they’re talking to me. I also trust myself to know the fence is there because if I didn’t have Korbe in my ear, that’s a hard catch to make. I can’t do it by myself. So, I get the credit for catching it, but I have to give credit to Korbe and Taylor because they make it happen too.” – senior Kendra Falby

On how she felt when the crowd was chanting her name following her catch…

“It was awesome. If I can change momentum anyway I can, I try to do my best to do that. And I felt it as I caught that. I was like, I can feel it, we’re rolling in the right direction, and we were.” – senior Kendra Falby

On how critical it is for the team to beat the number one team in a series…

“I think it’s huge. Honestly, especially going into the postseason, that’s a big momentum push. Like, just them being who they are and us being the Gators, just knowing that we can do it. There is absolutely no doubt in any of our minds that we can do anything that we set our minds to. Having that momentum going into a postseason, I think is huge in itself and being able to keep building the confidence in ourselves, too. To just know that we’re going to go far and that we can do it.” – sophomore Keagan Rothrock

UP NEXT

The Gators will be the No. 6-seed at the SEC Tournament hosted by Georgia in Athens.

Florida will play the winner of Ole Miss/Missouri on May 7 at 5 p.m. on the SEC Network.

 

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