No. 1 Texas is the next mountain for Florida Gators softball to climb

Skylar Wallace sets the example that every Florida teammate follows (Gator Bait photo by Chris Spears)

There are two ways to look at tonight’s winner’s brackets matchup between the Florida Gators (53-12) and the top-ranked Texas Longhorns (53-8) at the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City. Texas and 2nd-ranked Oklahoma (55-6), which also has a winner’s bracket game tonight, are just a month away from officially joining the Southeastern Conference, so the WCWS could easily be billed as a preview of the future of college softball. The SEC will be the nation’s dominant conference and Florida, Texas and Oklahoma are the teams that are poised to dominate the sport moving forward.

Tonight’s game with Texas could also be viewed as the next mountain the Gators must climb in their quest to becoming the unofficial champions of the Big 12 Conference. Only a week ago, the Gators finished off Baylor for the Gainesville Super Regional championship. Thursday night in Oklahoma City No. 5 Oklahoma State became the second straight Big 12 team to do down to Florida, 1-0, on a Katie Kistler home run and Keagan Rothrock’s 2-hitter.

So tonight it’s Texas, which supplanted Oklahoma as the Big 12 champion and the No. 1 team in the nation in the regular season. Should the Gators prevail tonight, there is a very good chance they’ll see Texas again since it’s double elimination. Win the bracket and the next obstacle, most likely, is Oklahoma, which has won the last three NCAA championships and whose senior class has always finished the season in an Oklahoma City dogpile. While most of the experts were predicting a Texas-Oklahoma final for the NCAA title, Florida has thrown a wrench into that way of thinking since UF beat a very good Oklahoma State team in front of a crowd that was more than 10-to-1 Oklahoma State fans.

Texas and Oklahoma, although not in that order, were supposed to be here in Oklahoma City. Florida was not, especially after the meltdown against Florida State just a day before the Gators departed for a critical SEC series with Georgia. Since that loss to FSU, the Gators are 15-2 with one of the wins a revenge is sweet 15-13 payback against FSU in Tallahassee.

It is more than just the recent hot streak, though. As Tim Walton has pointed out on more than one occasion, how could you have ever predicted a team that didn’t return anyone who had pitched to even one hitter in 2023 would be in Oklahoma City. Not only that, who could predict a team whose top two pitchers are freshmen or that a team starting four freshmen, two sophomores and only three starters from the year before would not only be at the WCWS, but in the winner’s bracket after the first night?

You can’t. And that’s exactly why you’d be foolish to bet against the Gators tonight or any night in college softball’s crowning event.

The term team of destiny is one of the most overused cliches in sports. Name the sport and some team that gets hot about playoff time is dubbed a team of destiny. It’s very tough to use that term when it comes to this Florida team largely because their run to get here has more to do with hard work and determination than anything else.

Tim Walton doesn’t have to nudge the Gators or threaten them with a fate worse than death to get them cranked up and ready to put in the work. Are some days better than others? Of course, but this is a team that follows its leader and nobody but nobody outworks Skylar Wallace. She is the best player in all of college softball. Period. End of story.

The numbers bear it out. She’s hitting .417 despite a 7-47 month of May. No one but the best player in the country could have dropped down to .368 and then raised her average by 49 points in a month. She leads the nation in runs scored (87) and is the NCAA record holder. She is 4th nationally in on base percentage (.564), 5th in stolen bases (37), tied for 7th in RBI (67), 10th in walks, 12th in total bases (143), 21st in doubles (18), 23rd in hits (75), 24th in slugging percentage (.794) and 31st in batting average. She is regarded as one of the top five fielders at shortstop as well.

Everything Wallace does is the result of her work ethic. A couple of weeks ago at the Gainesville Regional, her dad, Lynn Wallace told me that Skylar decided when she was 10 years old that she really wanted to be a softball player. He asked her if she wanted to be good or if she wanted to be great? Then he told her if she wanted him to coach her, she had to decide to be great.

 A decision was made and 24 years later she is not only the best player in college softball, but the best teammate who sets the example for the rest of the team with her work ethic. Walton says that with Wallace it’s all about winning.

“Not just winning softball games,” Walton said. “Winning at everything. Winning in the weight room. Winning on getting to the field [on time]. Don’t show up five minutes before.”

Just getting to Oklahoma City is an accomplishment but Skylar Wallace wants more. Because her Florida softball career will come to an end at the Women’s College World Series, she doesn’t want to leave without bringing home the big trophy. Florida won the NCAA title in 2014 behind the pitching of Hannah Rogers. The Gators repeated in 2015 behind the pitching and hitting of Lauren Haeger. For the Gators to make it three national titles, the driving force will be Wallace. There is no way the Gators would have made it to Oklahoma City if she hadn’t gone on such a tear in May.

It's June now, a good month to not only win an NCAA title but also take home the unofficial championship of the Big 12 Conference at the expense of Texas and Oklahoma, which will be joining the SEC in a month.

Friday’s games

No. 14 Alabama (39-19) 2, No. 10 Duke (52-9) 1; Duke eliminated

No. 8 Stanford (49-16) 8, No. 5 Oklahoma State (49-12) 0; Oklahoma State eliminated

Saturday’s games

No. 6 UCLA (43-10) vs. No. 2 Oklahoma (55-6), 3 p.m.

No. 4 FLORIDA (52-13) vs. No. 1 Texas (53-8), 7 p.m.