The Gators will be playing for their season Sunday afternoon in Oklahoma City vs Alabama. Can Florida advance to the semis for the first time since 2017?
Two words will characterize the coming hours for Florida softball:
Quick turnaround.
If you expand it to three, another phrase comes to mind:
Flush it out.
That’s the boat the Gators find themselves in after their 10-0 loss to Texas in the second round of the Women’s College World Series on Saturday night in Oklahoma City.
The loss moved UF into the losers bracket, where it will face No. 14 Alabama Sunday at 3 p.m.
The Tide are riding high after staving off elimination of their own Friday night with a 2-1 win over Duke.
Here’s the keys to victory, along with a prediction:
Florida softball must rely on the past
Florida’s biggest asset this season has been its ability to bounce back from losses. It lost back-to-back games just once this season, to USF and then twice to Missouri April 10-13.
When UF suffered its most recent run-rule loss — 12-3 to FSU on April 24 — the Gators bounced back with an 11-6 win over Georgia.
More recently, Florida responded well after its 5-2 loss last Saturday to Baylor in the super regionals.
The squad spoke after that game about lessons learned from defeats, and that showed the following day with a 5-3 win over the Bears that sent UF to Oklahoma City.
Now, UF must dig into that bag of tricks once more.
“I think we’re going to control the vibes, keep the vibes loose, have fun,” Skylar Wallace said after Saturday’s loss. “We really have nothing to lose at this point. You just have to play softball.”
Avoid first inning troubles from Rothrock
When Tim Walton addressed the media postgame Saturday night, he said something obvious to most Gator fans about Keagan Rothrock.
“Typically when she goes good, she goes good. When she goes bad, she goes bad,” he said.
That idea reared its head Saturday when the freshman allowed two runs and three hits in the first before Walton pulled her in favor of Ava Brown.
That proved similar to the previous Saturday, when Rothrock was pulled in the first following three runs given up vs Baylor.
The next day, she made it through the first unscathed and pitched a beauty.
The same occurred Thursday in Florida’s eventual 1-0 win over Oklahoma State.
The opportunity is there Sunday vs a Bama offense that’s scored just three runs in two WCWS games. Rothrock just needs to take advantage.
Florida softball vs Alabama prediction
Florida 5, Alabama 3
After Saturday’s loss, UF faces a tall task to advance to its first championship series since 2017 as it must win three in a row.
I don’t see the road ending Sunday.
As mentioned, the Gators have shown a knack for recovering from losses. Rothrock should bounce back vs a Tide offense, and while Kayla Beaver is a phenomenal pitcher, Alabama isn’t the buzz saw that Texas or Oklahoma State is.
Wallace admitted that Bama is better than when UF won two of three from the Tide in mid-March.
But she acknowledged the Gators are better too, and that’ll show Sunday.
“We’re familiar with each other. We have a lot of film. We can reflect on that, see our goods, our bads, what can lead to us a good game plan and approach,” Wallace said.
Noah Ram covers Gainesville-area high school sports and University of Florida athletics for The Gainesville Sun. Contact him at Nram@gannett.com and follow him @Noah_ram1 on Twitter.
