Florida Punches Super Regionals Ticket Behind Taylor Shumaker, Keagan Rothrock

Taylor Shumaker added another milestone to her growing legacy Sunday afternoon.

The sophomore crushed her 40th career home run against Georgia Tech in the NCAA Gainesville Regional final, moving into 10th place on Florida’s all-time home run list and helping power the Gators back to the Super Regionals.

Behind Shumaker’s bat and another strong outing from Keagan Rothrock, Florida defeated Georgia Tech 5-2 at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium to advance to the NCAA Super Regionals for the third straight season.

“She’s a good player,” Florida coach Tim Walton said. “She’s a freak athlete, she’s got length, she’s got power and she has speed.”

Florida now awaits the winner of the Lubbock Regional finale between Texas Tech and Ole Miss. Ole Miss must beat the 2025 Women’s College World Series runner-up twice Sunday to earn a trip to Gainesville.

“When they put this uniform on, it’s a reflection of what we’ve instilled in them day in and day out,” Walton said.

Making her third straight start of the regional, Rothrock entered Sunday dominant after throwing an 8-0 shutout against Georgia Tech on Saturday and three scoreless innings against Florida A&M on Friday.

Florida wasted little time backing its ace.

Shumaker opened the first inning with a double to deep left field, giving the Gators their program-record 113th double of the season. Jocelyn Erickson followed with a walk before Ava Brown moved both runners into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt. Townsen Thomas then brought Shumaker home on a fielder’s choice to give Florida a 1-0 lead.

Rothrock answered with a clean second inning, retiring Georgia Tech in order.

“Keagan [Rothrock] did a fantastic job all weekend long,” Walton said, “She walked five batters today and made some really good pitches.”

Florida broke the game open in the second.

After Ella Wesolowski grounded into a double play, Gabi Comia doubled into right field to keep the inning alive for Shumaker. The sophomore slugger delivered again, blasting a no-doubt opposite-field two-run homer into left field for her 40th career home run and a 3-0 Florida lead.

“It’s freeing when I have to leadoff the next inning and Taylor [Shumaker] is right behind me,” Comia said, “She just gives me all the confidence in the world.”

The Gators kept applying pressure in the third.

Thomas and Kenleigh Cahalan reached on back-to-back bunts before Kendall Grover loaded the bases after being hit by a pitch. Wesolowski drove in Thomas on a fielder’s choice to extend the lead to 4-0.

Georgia Tech briefly slowed Florida after bringing in pitcher Sydnie Watts, but the Gators added another run in the fourth. Watts walked both Shumaker and Brown before Thomas lined an RBI single to score Shumaker and push Florida ahead 5-0.

The run marked Shumaker’s third of the day, leaving her three shy of Skylar Wallace’s single-season program record of 90 runs scored.

Rothrock finally ran into trouble in the sixth after opening regional play with 13 ⅔ scoreless innings. Following two walks, Addison Leschber broke up Rothrock’s no-hit bid with a two-run double into left-center field to cut the deficit to 5-2.

The hit also snapped Florida’s 15 ⅔-inning scoreless streak in the regional.

“When you talk about who is the number one picture of the Florida Gators, it’s Keagan Rothrock,” Walton said.

Rothrock settled back in during the seventh to close out the win and secure Florida’s 17th Super Regional appearance in program history.

The junior improved to 29-6 after throwing her 19th complete game of the season. She allowed one hit and two runs while striking out three.

“This team has won 51 games, Keagan [Rothrock] has won 29 games in the circle,” Walton said. “We’re Regional champions, moving onto Super Regionals.”

“The backbone of this program is to do things right, not just sometimes, all the times,” Walton said.

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