Florida softball back in Super Regionals, takes down Georgia Tech in Gainesville regional final
By Sydney Hunte
Published:
Florida softball is headed back to Super Regionals for the third straight year.
The Gators, the NCAA Tournament’s sixth overall seed, defeated Georgia Tech 5-2 on Sunday to win the Gainesville regional final. Florida went 3-0 in Regionals, picking up back-to-back five-inning victories over Florida A&M on Friday (12-0) and Georgia Tech on Saturday (8-0).
Sunday’s final took all seven innings, but the result was the same for Tim Walton’s team.
The Gators did all their damage in the game’s first four innings. Townsen Thomas’s sacrifice groundout scored Taylor Shumaker to make it 1-0 in the bottom of the first.
Then, with one on and two out in the second, Shumaker unleashed a two-run home run to left center field, taking Yellow Jackets pitcher Madalyn Johnson deep to stretch the margin to 3-0. It was Shumaker’s second homer of the regional round and the 40th of her career, good for 10th in program history.
Florida added one in the third as Ella Wesolowski’s grounder to first scored Thomas, before Thomas brought in Shumaker with an RBI single in the fourth to make it a 5-0 game.
Keagan Rothrock went the distance for the Gators, taking a no-hitter into the sixth inning before an RBI double yielded Georgia Tech’s only runs of the game. Rothrock allowed just the two runs and one hit while walking five and striking out two.
Florida, in search of its third straight Women’s College World Series appearance and 13th overall, will host the winner of the Lubbock Regional at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium.
Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.
