Florida Softball Clinches Series Sweep In Regular-Season Finale

The No. 11 Florida Gators softball team beat the No. 8 Texas A&M Aggies 11-3 in six innings Sunday at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium.

The Gators (43-12, 17-7 SEC) clinched second place in the SEC with their first top-10 series sweep.

https://twitter.com/GatorsSB/status/1787200216879563239

Limiting A&M Hitters

The Gators found themselves in a similar position that they have been in lately. They had a 6-1 lead and looked like they were going to have a decisive win. In other games, the lead has been lost, but the Gators were able to limit the Aggies (39-12, 15-9 SEC).

Florida starter Keagan Rothrock (23-5) pitched six innings and gave up 11 hits. She only gave up three runs (two earned) and struck out four batters.

https://twitter.com/GatorsSB/status/1787186515417927794

The Texas A&M scoring started in the top of the first with Julia Cottrill reaching on an error to make it 1-0. After the Gators took a 6-1 lead, the Aggies responded with RBI singles from Jazmine Hill and Cottrill to make it 6-3, which would conclude their scoring.

Potent Offense

The Gators were able to score four runs off Aggie starter Emiley Kennedy (20-10) in three innings. Reagan Walsh started the scoring for the Gators with a sacrifice fly, but a throwing error caused a second run to score to make it 2-1. Skylar Wallace hit a two-run home run to make it 4-1 in the third inning.

The Gators continued to score after they chased Kennedy. A Korbe Otis run-scoring sacrifice fly and a Wallace RBI double made it 6-1. Katie Kistler hit a two-run home run in the sixth to make it 8-3. Jocelyn Erickson hit a three-run double to make it 11-3 and clinch the series sweep in the regular-season finale.

https://twitter.com/GatorsSB/status/1787197761655623880

Up Next

The Gators, who are 17-8 against Top-25 teams this season and 9-3 against teams ranked in the Top 10 of the USA Softball/ESPN.com Poll, will travel to Auburn, Ala., to compete in the SEC Tournament that begins Tuesday. The Gators hold the No. 2 seed in the tournament and will start play at 5 p.m. ET Thursday (SEC Network) in the quarterfinals against the winner of Wednesday’s first-round game between seven seed Georgia (38-15) and 10 seed Auburn (27-18-1).