Alabama
Florida softball vs. Alabama: Prediction for Women’s College World Series SEC showdown
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.
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The SEC opponents for Alabama women’s basketball during the 2026-27 campaign has been officially revealed.
The Tide will face some of the top teams in all of women’s college basketball throughout SEC play this upcoming season. Alabama will face Auburn, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Missouri, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss and Texas A&M at home, with Ole Miss being the Tide’s only SEC opponent that they will face twice this year, both home and away. Alabama will be on the road for matchups against Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi State, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas as well.
The dates, start times, and television network for each will be revealed at a later date.
Alabama held a 7-9 record throughout SEC play last season. The Tide were widely regarded as one of the top teams in the nation despite struggling at times during conference play, and Alabama was able to make a run during the SEC Tournament with a shocking upset to the Tennessee Lady Vols in Nashville.
Alabama went 24-11 last season as a whole, but the Tide will undoubtedly need to play better during SEC play this year nonetheless.
Contact/Follow us @RollTideWire on X, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Alabama news, notes and opinion.
Enjoy two nights of free dance at Stars on the Riverfront
Alabama Dance Theatre will present Stars on the Riverfront on June 20 and 21, at 7:30 p.m. each night at Riverwalk Amphitheater in Montgomery.
In Alabama’s coastal landscape, two Alabama bridges quietly stand among the longest in the United States.
A new World Atlas ranking of the 11 longest bridges in the United States is a reminder that not all crossings are so forgettable. These are the spans that stretch the idea of a “quick drive” into something else entirely.
As World Atlas notes, the country’s roughly 617,000 bridges are mostly routine. The ones on this list “swallow the horizon,” turning open water into a roadway that can take ten or fifteen minutes to cross.
Louisiana dominates the ranking, but Alabama also makes its presence known with two entries: the Jubilee Parkway and the General W.K. Wilson Jr. Bridge.
Jubilee Parkway: Alabama’s 7.5-mile bridge ranks No. 7 among longest in US
Ranked at No. 7 on World Atlas’ list, the Jubilee Parkway carries Interstate 10 across Mobile Bay as a pair of parallel viaduct bridges stretching 7.5 miles between Mobile and Spanish Fort/Daphne. Opened in 1978, the four-lane crossing is often called the “Bayway.”
The World Atlas says the bridge takes its name from Mobile Bay’s “jubilee” phenomenon, when marine life is pushed into shallow water, making it unusually easy to catch.
General W.K. Wilson Jr. Bridge: 6.08-mile span ranks No. 10 in U.S.
The General W.K. Wilson Jr. Bridge ranks No. 10 on the World Atlas list, stretching 6.08 miles across the Mobile-Tensaw River Delta northeast of Mobile as part of Interstate 65.
World Atlas says the bridge is better known locally as the “Dolly Parton Bridge,” a nickname inspired by the paired arch design that, locals say, resembles a distinctive silhouette when viewed from certain angles.
Completed in 1980, it features twin parallel weathering-steel arches and concrete viaducts carrying four lanes over the wide, marshy delta.
Longest bridges in the U.S. Full World Atlas ranking
World Atlas ranks these as the longest bridges in the U.S.:
- Lake Pontchartrain Causeway: 23.83 miles
- Manchac Swamp Bridge: 22.8 miles
- Louisiana Airborne Memorial Bridge: 18.2 miles
- Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel: 17.6 miles
- Bonnet Carré Spillway Bridge: 11 miles
- Louisiana Highway 1 Bridge: 8.26 miles
- Jubilee Parkway: 7.5 miles
- San Mateo-Hayward Bridge: 7 miles
- Seven Mile Bridge: 6.79 miles
- General W.K. Wilson Jr. Bridge: 6.08 miles
- Norfolk Southern Lake Pontchartrain Bridge: 5.8 miles
Jennifer Lindahl is a Breaking and Trending Reporter in Alabama for USA TODAY’s Deep South Connect Team. Connect with her on X @jenn_lindahl and email at jlindahl@usatodayco.com.
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