No. 3 Florida Softball Faces Off Against No. 6 Texas in Women’s College World Series

The Florida Gators (48-15) will be the home team Thursday against SEC-rival Texas (51-11) in Game 1 of the Women’s College World Series.

This is Florida’s second straight appearance in the WCWS, their 13th all time.

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The Gators will be facing a familiar opponent in Oklahoma City, SEC-newcomer, Texas. Five of the eight teams in the 2025 WCWS come from the SEC. These two teams faced off in the regular season at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium when the Gators lost the series 2-1. This will be the third time that the Gators and Longhorns see each other in the WCWS, first in 2013 when the Gators lost 3-0 and in 2024 when the Gators once again lost 10-0.

Both Florida and Texas are coming off of a three-game Super Regionals series win on Sunday. The Gators’ Super Regionals win coming against Georgia and the Longhorns’ coming against No. 11 Clemson.

Florida is lead by NFCA Freshman of the Year, Taylor Shumaker, and USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year Finalist, Kendra Falby. Shumaker, who leads the team in home runs and RBI, will be playing in her first WCWS, while Falby, team leader in hits and batting average, is capping off her senior year with a third trip to OKC in her four years as a Gator.

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“We’ve beaten everybody in the country and we’ve lost to people, so I think it’s just going to be be who can handle the moment and who can make less excuses and figure out how to play softball,” said head coach Tim Walton in a press conference Wednesday. “We play Texas the first game. It’s gonna be dang tough on them and it’s gonna be dang tough on us.”

Up Next

Game 1 of the WCWS is scheduled to begin Thursday at 12 p.m..  Game coverage will begin at 11:45 a.m. Thursday on ESPN 98.1-FM/850-AM WRUF and at 12 p.m. on ESPN.

The loser of Game 1 will play Friday at 7 p.m. against the loser of Tennessee–Oklahoma. While the winner of Game 1 will play the winner of Tennessee-Oklahoma Saturday at 3 p.m..