Gators have won 11 in a row by doing things the right way

Tim Walton congratulates Jocelyn Erickson after 1st inning HR (Gator Bait Photo by Chris Spears)

Although it preceded Florida’s current 11-game winning streak by three weeks and there were some speed bumps up ahead, Tim Walton caught a real glimpse of the kind of team he had after the Gators melted down in the fifth inning against South Florida, losing that game 7-4.

“After we lost to South Florida, I wore our team out, not because South Florida beat us – they played fantastic – we were terrible,” Walton said Sunday afternoon after the Gators (49-12) run-ruled South Alabama (34-20-1), 9-1, to win the Gainesville Regional Championship, advancing to next week’s NCAA Super Regional against Baylor. “There was a lot of things that were off in that game and the day before that game and all the other things that go into that.

“I walked into the locker room. I was the last person to leave. I think it was a 6-or-7’o’clock game. It was dark. I walked into the locker room at the end of the night which is the only time I’ve walked into the locker room this season. The locker room was as clean as it was when we built this place. There wasn’t one thing on the ground, there wasn’t one thing out of place in a locker. There wasn’t any food, there wasn’t any drink, there weren’t any uniforms. Everything was buttoned up, tidy as it can be. To me that’s a sign of good leadership and being able to continue the standard. I know when we play terrible, when we’re bad, there’s something off. I’ll go searching for it right away and they knew it. They beat me to the punch … if there were something broken, it would have shown up in that locker room. Stuff would have been a mess. People would have just walked out, who cares? Someone else will pick that up. That’s not what it’s like to win championships and sustain success. It’s doing it the right way all the time, win or loss, win or lose. That was a real good sign for me that we have done a good job of building it and sustaining it, which is not easy to do.”

A clean locker room after a loss might not seem like a big deal, but Walton constantly preaches doing the right thing for no other reason because it’s the right thing to do. He stays on his team about taking care of the little things, that little things left unattended become the big things that end up costing ball games. The Gators have been taking care of the little things quite well recently. They’re on an 11-game winning streak.

Sunday, prior to the win over South Alabama, Walton had a conversation about doing the little things with Jocelyn Erickson, his SEC Player of the Year catcher who left Oklahoma after winning the Women’s College World Series in 2023 to transfer to Florida. In her three most recent games – Florida’s SEC Tournament championship win over Missouri, Friday night’s regional win over Florida Gulf Coast and the Saturday win over South Alabama, Erickson was a combined 1-7 at the plate with zero RBI.

“Coach Walton came up to me today and it was like don’t focus so much on the pitcher, focus on what you do good,” Erickson said. “So, that’s what I was going up there to do. I knew we needed to get ahead early in the game, so there was a runner on base so I was just doing my job.”

With two outs and Korbe Otis on first base in the first inning Sunday, Erickson went opposite field on a 3-2 count for her 13th home run of the season. In the third, with Otis on second after a single and a stolen base, and Skylar Wallace on first after a walk, Erickson drove home Otis for her third RBI of the game.

Mini-slump broken. Three RBI raised her total to 78 for the season, tops in the SEC, tied for second in the nation and two away from the school record of 80 set by Megan Bush.

“It’s a phenomenal accomplishment, just how good an RBI-getter she is,” Walton said.

In Florida’s 7-run third inning, Erickson and Reagan Walsh had run scoring singles to put Florida ahead 4-0. Ava Brown hit a 2-run single, Otis hit a 2-run double and Wallace doubled in two to make it a 9-0 game.

The hits and the walks and the smart baserunning were obvious Sunday. The little things that Walton talks about were maybe not so obvious. Whenever a Gator hits the ball and runs to first, on deck hitter retrieves the bat. Make an out and there is a conversation with the next hitter to discuss the pitches she saw. In the field there is constant communication. It’s rare you’ll see a Gator throw to the wrong base or make a mental error that costs runs.

The little things add up.

Offensively, Sunday, the Gators wore out four South Alabama pitchers. South Alabama pitchers not only gave up 11 hits, but they walked six and hit a batter. South Alabama pitchers threw 121 pitches. Florida pitchers Keagan Rothrock, who went the first two innings, and Brown, who went the final three, got the job done with a tidy 76 pitches.

Rothrock gave up one hit, one walk and struck out four. Brown gave up three hits and hit a batter without walking anyone as she picked up her 16th win in 21 decisions.

Rothrock and Brown are freshmen who led their high school teams to multiple state championships. Erickson was a vital cog in Oklahoma’s NCAA championship last year. Brown says you come to play softball at Florida to be part of a championship culture.

“You choose to come to a program like this because you want to win,” Brown said. “That’s what this program does. They have a standard and our team has been one of the first teams in a really long time that I feel like has truly focused on that standard and make it everything we play for. And so being able to do that and grow as a team even with so many new girls, I think that’s definitely what you look for when you come to a program like this is being able to have these experiences.”

Upon arriving from Oklahoma, Erickson felt the love and acceptance from her new teammates and coaches immediately. What made her feel more at home was the fact that it’s not only about softball in the Florida culture.

“I think the coaches do a really good job of making us feel seen and heard and that we’re worth it, that we’re people first and players second,” Erickson said.

Championships are a by-product of Walton’s first rule of doing business, which is do the right thing first time, every time, all the time. He recruits kids from championship programs because those athletes already have a clue about what it’s like to do the work it takes to be a champion.

He wants athletes who can verbalize their goals so that he can do what it takes to help them achieve the desired success. When former UF great Amanda Lorenz came to Florida she told Walton she wanted to be a 4-time All-American. Walton told her she had a choice: either she could lower her expectations or she could raise her work ethic.

Lorenz chose to raise her work ethic and became Florida’s first 4-time All-American.

“If you want to be successful as a student-athlete, you have to do unrequired things,” Walton said. “You can’t just do 20 hours of work a week, it just doesn’t work. As a coach I don’t need hours to be … “all right we’re going 20 hours.” It’s not about 20 hours. It’s trying to get each one of our athletes everything they need every single day, and with that being said, our athletes have to do things outside of practice time to get what they need to accomplish their goals.”

The next goal for the 4th-seeded Gators will be to win the Super Regional next weekend against Baylor of the Big 12 Conference. Baylor is unseeded, advancing after beating 13th-seed and Lafayette Regional host Louisiana, 4-3, in a winner advances, loser’s season ends game.

The super regional is simply the next step in achieving the goal Erickson stated before the season began.

“Before the beginning of the season I was telling everyone in the locker room, we’re going to the World Series,” Erickson said. “That’s the plan. That’s the job we’re trying to accomplish.”

First obstacle overcome. Next obstacle Baylor next weekend.

Gator notes: The Gators have won 11 straight games and 12 of their last 13. Prior to the Georgia series back on April 26, the Gators had lost five of eight games and had an RPI of 19 … Skylar Wallace extended her hitting streak to 11 games during which time she is 19-26 at the plate with six doubles, five homers and 23 RBI. Wallace has scored 302 runs in her softball career, which ties the NCAA record with Michigan’s Sierra Romero … This will be the 15th time the Gators have advanced to a super regional, all of them with Tim Walton at the helm … If the Gators can beat Baylor next weekend, they will be off to Oklahoma City for the Women’s College World Series for the 12th time.