Florida Gators News: Softball gets massive series win, Swim legends set records, more

The Florida Gators Softball program made some noise on Friday and Saturday in front of Gator Nation, and it wasn’t just their celebration of their seniors on senior day Friday.

With the help of a grand slam by freshman Taylor Shumaker, the Florida Gators defeated the Oklahoma Sooners 9-4 on Friday to even the series 1-1 after Oklahoma defeated Florida Thursday.

Reagan Walsh, Mia Williams, and Ava Brown also joined in on the home run party Friday to help lead the Gators to victory. This was the first time since 2013 that the Gators have defeated a top team in the nation. And they haven’t done it at home since 2007.

Walsh was 4-for-4 at the plate on Friday and accumulated two RBIs to give her a total 222 on her career, which surpasses assistant coach, Francesca Enea for the second-most RBIs in UF program history.

Florida Gators Softball takes series against Oklahoma

Then on Saturday, the Gators carried their momentum from Friday and Defeated the No. 1 Sooners 6-4 to take the series 2-1. This win was a big one. It was the first time in program history that the Gators have taken a series against a No. 1 opponent.

Taylor Shumaker was 2-for-3 with a run scored; Kenleigh Cahalan was 2-for-3; Kendra Falby was 1-for-3 with run scored; Korbe Otis was 1-for-3 with 2 RBIs.

Ava Brown homered again on Saturday, white Shumaker and Otis each hit a double, Cahalan took a triple, and the Gators out-hit Oklahoma 7-6 to take the 6-4 win.

This closed out the regular season for the Gators. They will now head to Georgia, where they will enter SEC play as the No. 6 seed and face the winner of Ole Miss/ Missouri on May 7.

Katie Ledecky Sets a New World Record, Bobby Finke Beats Out Olympic Champion

The champ has done it again! On night three of the 2025 TYR Pro Swim Series, Katie Ledecky took her own (now previous) 800 meter freestyle record of 8:04.79 and in dramatic fashion, smashed it to set a new world record of 8:04:12, a personal and world best by 67 hundredths of a second, which in swimming, is still a big deal.

This weekend has shown one strength of Florida Gators’ swimmers, and it’s their ability to finish fast. Ledecky was under the world record pace through the first 400 meters of the race, picked up a little speed going into the 600th meter and did not back down from there. She was seven hundredths under the pace at the 700 meter mark and ultimately came home with a 67 hundredths of a second world record to end day three of the weekend.

“I flipped at the 750,” said Ledecky. “It was loud in here, and I just told myself I’m not letting this opportunity go to waste and started sprinting.” 

Ledecky now has the 10 fastest times in history in the 800 meter free.

Another speedy Gator racing this weekend is three-time Olympic champion and Florida Gator great, Bobby Finke. This weekend marked a great performance for the 25-year old when in the last 50 meters of the men’s 400 meter individual medley, Finke turned on the aquatic thrusters to speed past the world record holder and Olympic champion, Leon Marchand to win the 400, also in dramatic fashion.

After the race, Finke stated that he was just “doing my best to hang on, and play to my strengths a bit.” 

Finke touched the time pad at 4:13.67. Marchand was just under 19 hundredths of a second behind at 4:13.86.

Both Gator swim stars have had great success in the water this weekend and look to carry that into the U.S. Swim Championships in June.

Gators Baseball: Gators Take Game One Against South Carolina, Game Two Suspended Due to Weather

After a three-hour lightning delay in the bottom of the first, South Carolina took a quick lead in game one on Friday coming out of the weather delay. The Gamecocks struck for three runs in the first inning. The Gators struck back in the third on a two-out RBI double by Luke Heyman.

South Carolina answered right back in the bottom half of the third with another run before it was all Gators from the fourth inning on. The Gators struck for two in the fourth, five in the third and one eighth. South Carolina scored just one more run in the bottom of the fifth as the Gators ultimately went on to defeat South Carolina 9-5 to take game one of the series.

In the fourth, it was a two-run home run by Hayden Yost that made it a one run game.

The fifth is where the Gators blew it open. Heyman drove in his second RBI of the day on a solo home run to left field that tied the game at four. Later in the inning, with base loaded, outfielder Ty Evans hit a grand slam 426 feet to deep center to give the gators the 8-4 lead, which they did not look back on.

The Gamecocks got one back in the fifth, but the Gators’ bullpen held them scoreless in the last four innings.

The Gators tacked on a run in the eighth as they went on to win 9-5.

Caden McDonald (4-0) clinched his fourth win of the season, Jackson Soucie (3-1) took the loss for South Carolina, Jake Clemente (6) was credited with his sixth save of the season.

Heyman was 2-for-4 with two RBIs and a run scored; Evans was 2-for-4 with a run scored and four RBIs; Justin Nadeau was 2-for-3 with a run scored.

With Friday’s win, the Gators have now won 11 of their last 13 games and eight of 10 in SEC play.

 Game two on Saturday was suspended with two outs in the bottom of the third. That game will resume at 1:30PM Sunday with the Gators ahead 1-0 and will be a full nine inning game. Game three will follow 50 minutes after game two and will be a seven inning game.

Both games will stream on SEC Network+.

UF Lacrosse win Big 12 Tournament

The Florida Gators Lacrosse team added to the excitement Saturday as they defeated the Arizona Sun Devils to win the first ever Big 12 Tournament Championship. This marked the Gators’ 11th straight conference tournament championship and their 12th in program history.

The Gators Tennis and Baseball Teams will be in action on Sunday. The Gators Golf Team begins postseason play on Monday.