GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The two players took their seat at the post-game podium Sunday to break down the Gators’ third consecutive win, an 8-0 shutout of Mercer in the NCAA Gainesville Regional championship round. UF had secured yet another home Super Region in great part because Keagan Rothrock was on her game in the circle and Ava Brown smashed her second home run in as many days to break things open.

Rothrock and Brown, two sophomores, represented the fourth and fifth different players over the tournament to be summoned for media duty for their outstanding exploits. 

“With our team, it’s kind of fitting as we sit up here on the way to Super regionals, that we have a new player of the game, a new star of the game,” said Florida coach Tim Walton, whose third-seeded Gators (46-14) will play host to Southeastern Conference rival and unseeded Georgia (35-21), which upset 14th-seed Duke, in Super play later this week. “It’s really fun to see how deep we are.”

 

To be clear, there was actually one repeat post-game performer over the weekend. On Friday, after whipping Mercer 8-0 in first-round play, it was sophomore second baseman Mia Williams (2-for-2, with 3 RBI) and freshman outfielder Taylor Shumaker (1-for-3, 1 homer, 2 RBI) who got the call. Saturday, after waxing Florida Atlantic 14-6, junior catcher Jocelyn Erickson (1-for-4, a walk-off slam) and Shumaker (2-for-2, 3 runs, 2 homers, 5 RBI).

Shumaker didn’t make an appearance Sunday, but her name definitely came up. Rothrock and Brown, both instrumental in helping guide the team back to the Women’s College World Series in their 2024 freshman seasons, had plenty to say about their rookie phenom who got the team’s first hit Sunday and scored a pair of runs. Shumaker, for the regional, went 4-for-7, scored six times, hit three home runs and tallied seven RBI. 

“I mean, it’s unreal,” Brown said. “There are no words of it. It’s like, ‘Oh, she got another hit. Shocker!’ “

And this from Rothrock: “She deserves every bit of what she gets. She’s truly one of the hardest workers and someone I’m so happy for and happy to see thrive and succeed.” 

Rockrock added her delight in not having to pitch to Shumaker, which UF’s opponents, including the upcoming Bulldogs, would no doubt prefer to say. Shumaker, the 6-foot slugger from Fullerton, California, is batting .387, has a team-high 70 runs and 17 doubles, needs just three RBI to tie the school single-season record of 86 and only one homer to tie the single-season record of 22. Her 187 total bases and .817 slugging percentage rank first on a UF offense that ranks second nationally in runs scored. 

She equaled Brittany Schutte’s freshman home run record of 19 in the regional opener, then broke it (and then some) with two blasts in the second game. One of them was a rocket to right-center that sailed so fast into the oak trees on the other side of the fence and sawed through a couple limbs, dropping them to the ground. 

 

B4 | INTO THE TREES 🌳 🤯

This is Taylor’s second HR of the game!

Gators 7 | Owls 3

📺 https://t.co/UVkbF1hMG7 (ESPN+) pic.twitter.com/CppoYPl4y5

— Gators Softball (@GatorsSB) May 17, 2025

About rewriting those records, Shumaker said it wasn’t a thing she was thinking about. 

“I feel like once I start looking at a number that’s when it starts getting a little overwhelming. You put a lot of pressure on yourself just to kind of achieve that number,” Shumaker said Friday. “I didn’t even know that I tied it, actually. I had no clue. I feel like once you put a number on it, that’s when softball can become a very lonely sport, if you’re just worried about averages and numbers and stuff like that. Just thinking about doing something for my team, things like that will come eventually, but as long as I’m staying with my team and I’m doing what’s best for them, I don’t really think numbers and stuff like that matter to me.”

That’s good, because a bunch of really, really big ones are going to pile up alongside her name in the coming seasons. In fact, she was back in the interview room Saturday speaking humbly and deflecting from her eye-popping digits and, yes, broken records. 

“I knew that, coming into this season, I was going to just kind of embrace being the newbie in the lineup, but honestly, I have so many amazing hitters [around me],” she said. “My coaches have just put so much effort into me and who I am, just kind of embracing my swing and that I’m not a home run hitter, that I’m not somebody who tries to hit home runs, but that sometimes they do come if I make good contact.”

Erickson, sitting to the “newbie’s” left, laughed as she stated the obvious. 

“I think she’s a home run hitter,” Erickson said. 

If this Florida run can last through Supers and move on to Oklahoma City, Shumaker will have established some records she’ll be chasing down the line. Not bad from a prospect who a year ago was rated — seriously, who does these rankings — the No. 57 prospect in the nation. Walton and his staff had her rated No. 1.

“Pole to pole,” Walton said of Shumaker’s power to all fields, calling her ability to make solid contact the best he’d ever seen from one of his players. “It’s the way she swings, keeps the barrel behind her hands for as long as possible. When she releases — a lot of people are decelerating at contact — she accelerating at contact. The ball jumps off her bat like a trampoline. You can put a wood bat in her hand, she would do the same thing.” 

For now, the metal one is doing just fine. 

After each game, Walton huddles with his team in the outfield and calls out his players of the game. After finishing off Mercer, he ticked off Sunday’s stars and actually did not mention Brown, who parked her three-run shot onto the roof of the left-field pitching lab in the fourth inning. 

Shumaker approached Walton after and mentioined the oversight.

And there was Brown in the interview room. Another day, another different star, but with one of their brightest very much on the rise. 

“The get-it factor is really high with her,” Walton said. “She understands not only Taylor Shumaker, but what it takes to be a good teammate.” 

As the games roll into the high-profile, high-visibility part of the season, college softball fans, in turn, are going to understand (and get to know) Taylor Shumaker. 

Email senior writer Chris Harry at chrish@gators.ufl.edu