No. 4 Florida Softball Earns Series Victory Against Auburn
No. 4 Florida softball capped its final regular-season weekend at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium with a series win against the Auburn Tigers with a 7-1 victory Sunday afternoon.
Keagan Rothrock (23-4) started in the circle for the 26th time this season. She let two batters reach base via a walk and a hit by pitch in the first, but got out of the jam with back-to-back strikeouts.
Kendall Grover got the scoring started for the Gators with a first-inning two-run home run to left field to bring in Taylor Shumaker, who leadoff the inning with a walk. This was her first home run since March 28 against Arkansas and the ninth of the season.
“The tone was set early today with Kendall’s big hit and getting the leadoff batter on base with Taylor. Keagan also came out and set the tone,” UF coach Tim Walton said.
Townsen Thomas continued the inning with the first triple of her career, just the second Florida triple of the season. Ava Brown also got on after drawing a walk, but they were left stranded.
After a 1-2-3 top of the second, the Gators (43-6, 16-5 SEC) offense hit three singles in a row to load the bases with no outs, but were unable to bring anyone home when Jocelyn Erickson, Grover and Kenleigh Cahalan were sent down in order.
The Tigers (24-21, 3-15) got some action on the base paths as Rothrock gave up two walks, but the Gators defense backed up their pitcher when Erickson put her body on the line, falling into the safety net to catch a foul ball.
Florida’s bats stayed hot in the third, getting runners into scoring position after Thomas hit a leadoff single and Brown followed with a double. McLellan, Gabi Comia and Shumaker followed with RBI hits to extend the Florida lead to 5-0.
Auburn starting pitcher Ella Harrison was removed after Shumaker’s RBI double. She started in back-to-back games, throwing 176 pitches in 24 hours. Harrison was relieved by Charley Butler.
Auburn didn’t get a hit until the fourth when first baseman AnnaLea Adams hit a single through the left side. Adams was stranded when Rothrock sent the next three Tigers back to the dugout.
The Tigers stayed scoreless in the fifth as Rothrock threw a three-up, three-down inning.
Comia got her second RBI in the fifth in bringing home McLellan. This hit was followed by Shumaker’s second RBI-double of the game to extend the Gator lead to 7-0. However, just one run away from ending the game via run-rule, Erickson hit a pop out to left field giving the Tigers a little more time to get some runs on the board.
Neither team was able to produce runs in the sixth, even after the Gators loaded the bases with no outs.
Rothrock was just three outs away from pitching a complete game shutout when she gave up a solo homer to Auburn catcher Ava Ratliff. She struck out her seventh batter of the game before Walton pulled her.
Olivia Miller came into the game with one out, and faced three batters to seal Florida’s 55th program victory against the Tigers, who won Saturday’s game 4-0 after falling 9-1 on Friday.
“It’s great to have someone like Olivia,” Walton said. “She’s done an A+ job this year. I really can’t fault her for a couple games here this year that she wasn’t at her best. She’s had a really, really solid consistency for us.”
Florida heads to Tallahassee for the first of two rivalry games against No. 12 Florida State (38-7) at 6 p.m. Wednesday (ESPN2). The Seminoles will play in Gainesville at 7 p.m. April 28 (SEC Network).
Category: College Softball, Feature Sports News, Gator Sports, Gators Softball
