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Perennial college power Florida will open the season ranked No. 20, according to the D1 Softball preseason rankings released Tuesday.
The team ended the 2023 season with a 38-22 record and finished No. 24 overall. There are six SEC teams listed above Florida in the poll, including No. 3 Tennessee and No. 6 Georgia.
The soon-to-be SEC members Texas and Oklahoma hold places in the top five. There are nine current SEC teams on the list, two more than the 2023 final top 25.
Softball America’s poll came out Jan. 11 and placed the Gators at No. 24.
D1Softball Preseason Rankings 📈#GoGators pic.twitter.com/xNagX9DiE9
— Gators Softball (@GatorsSB) January 16, 2024
Next Up for the Gators
The team is holding an open practice at 4 p.m. Friday at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium, where it will run an Orange-and-Blue scrimmage. Admission is free and open to the public. The National Fastpitch Coaches Association National Player of the Year, redshirt senior shortstop Skylar Wallace, will return for the scrimmage. Wallace finished last season with 19 home runs and a .447 batting average.
Seven freshmen will make their debut, including 2023 Gatorade Best Female Athlete Ava Brown and 2023 PGF All-American Cassidy McLellan. There are also four transfer students, one from the SEC, starting their first season as a Gator.
https://twitter.com/GatorsSB/status/1747381315769348438
The Gators’ 2023 season ended in late May during the D1 Softball Championship. Florida beat the Loyola Marymount Lions twice, then took on Stanford. After back-to-back losses to the No. 9 seed Stanford Cardinals in the double-elimination Stanford regionals, the Gators were sent home.
The Cardinals went on to lose to national champion Oklahoma at the Women’s College World Series.
Florida also fell to the No. 1 seed Tennessee Volunteers in the SEC Softball Tournament.
It’s almost showtime.
Full schedule just dropped🐊
🔗 https://t.co/yBd7OHeCyB | #GoGators pic.twitter.com/2Rb6y9kMxJ
— Gators Softball (@GatorsSB) October 4, 2023
The season opener is set for Feb. 9 at 5:30 p.m. at the USF-Rawlings Invitational in Tampa. The Gators will face Oregon State. Florida will play seven games over the span of the five-day tournament.
