Post season begins for Florida softball

(UAA Photo)

The Gator softball team enters the post season this Thursday in the SEC Softball Tournament in Lexington, Kentucky. They will play the first game of the day after getting one of the double byes for finishing the regular season in third place with a record of 17-7 in the conference. Their opponent will be the winner of the game on Wednesday between Texas A&M and the winner of the Tuesday game between Auburn and Missouri.

The Gators dropped two of three to close out the regular season against Georgia in Athens. Uncharacteristic defensive errors helped pave the way for the Dogs to win the series. Let’s hope that the girls got that out of their system as they head into the new portion of the schedule. This tournament in the Bluegrass state isn’t the one you want to win if you can only win one, but it is an important one in the sense that winning it creates momentum moving into the NCAA regions the next weekend.

This is the last year the SEC tournament will be held on a campus as it is moving to a minor league ballpark just outside of Huntsville, Alabama starting next year. The one and done format is tough to really draw fans to because of the uncertainty of arrangements, so it makes sense to have a neutral site. With the SEC office in Birmingham, it is no surprise that the location is also in Alabama. Will it be an advantage to Alabama in the tournament moving forward? Of course it will! Tennessee and Ole Miss will also have some fans within easy driving distance as well. Time will tell if proves to be a hit around the league.

The Gators finished the regular season with a 47-9 record. The two losses at Georgia dropped the Gators’ RPI ranking to #5. That should be good enough for a top-8 national seed but a couple of wins in the tournament would be a boost. The Gators finished with a team batting average of .357, 97 home runs, and 434 runs scored. Taylor Shumaker led the team in batting average at .441. Jocelyn Erickson still leads the Home Run contest with 19 and continues to be on the precipice of Gator history as our radio guys continue to point out at each at bat. She also led the team with 69 RBI. Shumaker had 11 more hits than Erickson to lead the team with 82 and scored 79 times as well.

The Gator pitching staff continues to center around Keagan Rothrock who finished the regular season at 26-6 with a 2.41 era. Olivia Miller lost her first game of the season on Friday to run her record to 8-1 with a 1.54 era. Rothrock threw 177.1 innings this season. For comparison, Miller is next for the staff with 59 innings. Katelyn Oxley tossed 48 innings in 19 appearances. Unless Ava Brown can make a postseason appearance in the circle after her injury, the Gators must rely on Rothrock and Miller to get the job done. The burden will fall mostly on the right arm of Rothrock to pick up wins and likely saves in games Miller starts.

The run to the National Championship begins this Thursday. All the work, all the games, all the off-season training has led to these moments. For a program built for the postseason like Tim Walton’s squad, this is all that matters. Can they survive and advance each step along the way and get a chance to play for the title in the last series of the year. Time will tell.