WOMEN’S UNIVERSITY WORLD SERIES / ELIMINATION GAME
Florida 6, Alabama 4
WHAT HKeynoteUSAPENED: Second-year receiver from Florida Jocelyn Erickson had four RBIs, including a three-run homer, and the fourth-seeded Gators survived their Sunday night elimination game in the Women’s College World Series with a 6-4 victory over their rival and the 14th seed. Crimson Tide at Devon Park. The victory moved UF to the WCWS semifinals for the first time since 2017. Erickson, the Oklahoma transfer and 2024 Southeastern Conference Player of the Year, came into the game with just one hit over the past two weekends, but made up for lost time. She scored the first of UF’s two runs in the third inning to help the Gators turn a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead. That RBI was Erickson’s 81st of the season and set a single-season program record. She extended the mark with her two-out, two-hit drive, her 14th of the season, over the center field wall to take a 6-2 lead in sixth-place Florida. UF Freshman Pitcher Keagan Rothrock He needed the cushion, as the Tide rallied for a pair of runs behind four singles in the sixth, but were defeated 1-2-3 in the seventh. For Rothrock (32-8), it was a nice bounce-back performance after lasting just 14 pitches less than 24 hours earlier in a 10-0 run-rule loss to top-seeded Texas. Starting his 12th straight game, Rothrock scored his eighth complete postseason game, allowing three earned runs with five strikeouts and one walk to become the NCAA leader in wins this season, just the seventh freshman to the NCAA’s history of doing so. She had help. UF finished with 10 hits on the night, as a designated player Reagan Walsh had two RBIs and a left fielder Korbe Otistransfer from Louisville, reached base four times and scored three runs for the Gators, who scored just one run and three hits in their first two WCWS games.
Second year student Jocelyn Erickson watches his three-run home run in the sixth inning go over the center field wall.
PLAY OF THE GAME: Erickson’s home run, without a doubt, gave the Gators that four-run lead and Rothrock some margin for error… which she needed.
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: The Florida offense. Finally. After combining for just two hits in the first two games of the WCWS, the Gators matched that with six batters on Sunday. However, they still need to get a couple of their big guns going. Skylar Wallace and Kendra Falby They’re a combined 16-1 in Oklahoma City, and they’re better off after leaving seven runners on base to have any chance in the next round. Keep reading.
AMAZING STATISTICS: Falby actually made a mistake, which qualifies as “News Breaking” for the 2024 Rawlings Gold Glove winner. Falby, with a handful of brilliant defensive plays in recent weeks, came into the game with a .992 efficiency on the season, but uncharacteristically dropped a routine fly ball that led to an Alabama run in the first inning. The mistake was only his second in 121 opportunities this season and his first in 41 games, and dates back to the March 11 loss (ironically) at Alabama.
NOTABLES:
- Jocelyn Erickson tied the game 1-1 in the top of the third with her 81st RBI of the year. The RBI broke the UF single-season RBI record previously held by Megan Bush (80 – 2011).
- He extended the lead to 6-2 and his RBI total to 84 with a three-run homer to center in the sixth inning. It was his fourteenth home run of the year.
- Erickson’s four RBIs are tied for the most RBIs in a single game in the WCWS by a Gator since Chelsea Herndon’s four RBIs against Baylor in 2014.
- Ariel Kowalewski recorded the first multiple hit of the 2024 Women’s College World Series for Florida after going 2-for-3 with a pair of singles and Otis did the same with her second hit in the top of the fifth and finished the game 2- for 3.
- Florida is the first team since Washington (2009) to reach the WCWS returning 0.0 innings pitched from the previous season.
- The win also marks the program’s first NCAA semifinal appearance since the 2017 season.
UNTIL NEXT TIME: Florida (53-14) are the WCWS semifinals. That’s the good news. Very good news. The bad news is that No. 2 Oklahoma (53-6), the three-time reigning NCAA champion (and Erickson’s former team), will be waiting for them, as the Gators will have to defeat the Sooners, and their decisive home field advantage, barely. 30 minutes from Norman campus, twice on Monday to get to the national championship series. The first game is scheduled for noon (ET) on KeynoteUSA.
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