Florida Softball: 2026 Season Preview
Florida softball is set to start the season Friday. The Gators had a successful season last year, reaching the Women’s College World Series for the third time in four years.
Florida went 48-17 in 2025 and lost in the first round of the SEC tournament to Ole Miss 6-3. However, the Gators came back and fought through the NCAA Regionals and Super Regionals to make the WCWS in Oklahoma City.
The Gators trip to the WCWS was short lived after they fell to Texas and Tennessee in back-to-back games.
The program saw the loss of senior starters Kendra Falby, Reagan Walsh and Korbe Otis. The team also lost five players to the transfer portal, including starter Mia Williams. Falby was coming off two straight Rawlings Gold Glove Award wins.
However, the team did bring in five transfers, including catcher Ella Wesolowski from Mississippi State and infielder Kendall Grover from Eastern Illinois, who coach Tim Walton said would be hitting cleanup for the Gators.
“I think we’ve got a good team, a good mix of people, old and young,” Walton said. “I call them a lot of Swiss Army knives, we have a lot of players who can do a lot of things, whether they can pitch and hit, infielders can play as outfielders.”
Grover, who was a four-star transfer according to Softball America, is coming off an outstanding year. She earned back-to-back Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year at Eastern Illinois. In 56 games started in 2025, she held a .416 batting average, alongside 10 home runs and 34 RBIs.
Florida brings back ace Keagan Rothrock, who dealt with injuries throughout the 2025 season, but looks to return to her record-breaking 2024 form, when she threw a 2.59 ERA and went 33-9. Although compartment syndrome riddled her season, she still put up a 3.24 ERA and went 16-7.
“I don’t know that there will ever be a clean bill of health for Keagan,” Walton said. “She’s never not on my injury report, she does not run with the team.”
Sophomore Taylor Shumaker will once again hit second and start in the outfield for the Gators. Shumaker had a standout freshman season, earning accolades such as NFCA Freshman of the Year and NFCA First Team All-American.
In 2025, Shumaker held a .389 batting average and broke UF freshman records for home runs, RBI, runs and slugging percentage. Shumaker’s 86 RBIs tied for second best in the nation.
“She’ll never be last year, last year is an opportunity for her to be great, now we’re expecting her to be great and she is that. She’s a really good softball player,” Walton said. “I don’t think that if we compare last year to this year it’s going to be a successful season for her or for us. She’s got the ability to win every single game for us every single at bat, and if we can just stay in small doses like that, I think she’s going to have a great year.”
Walton and junior pitcher Ava Brown mentioned during media availability that this 2026 team has great chemistry on and off of the field.
“I’ve never experienced that before in my career here and I truly feel like this is just such a special team and a special group of people,” Brown said. “They’re people that I thoroughly enjoy hanging out with on a consistent basis.”
Brown has played a pivotal role for the Gators since her arrival in 2024. Her leadership and determination on and off the field has been a key factor. Brown was voted captain by her teammates, alongside catcher Jocelyn Erickson.
Erickson is returning for her last year with the Gators. The senior out of Arizona transferred to Florida from Oklahoma in 2023. In the 2024 season, Erickson set multiple UF records and won NFCA Division l Player of the Year. She also joins Falby as a two-time recipient of the Rawlings Gold Glove Awards, receiving the honor in 2024 and 2025.
“I think they’ve really done a good job this fall of trying not only to share the success, but actually spending more time off the field as people,” Walton said. “When you know people, it’s easier to root for people and compete with people.”
Florida last won a national championship in 2015, when the Gators went back-to-back behind some of the program’s most iconic players: Hannah Rogers and Lauren Haeger. Walton is hungrier than ever for the program’s third national championship.
“We’re never going to change what the end goal is,” Walton said. “That’s to compete for a national championship, and if we’re not talking national championships, then you’re probably not talking to me as a coach, it’s just who I am, it’s what I instilled in this program, it’s what I was recruited to be when I came to this program. That’s what I recruit players to be as well, we’re competing for national championships at the University of Florida.”
Florida begins its quest to Oklahoma City on Friday at the USF-Rawlings Invitational against Illinois State at 7 p.m.
Category: College Softball, Gator Sports, Gators Softball, NCAA, SEC, Softball
