Florida Softball barely breaks a sweat in Tampa and sweeps USF-Rawlings Invitational

Six games into the 2025 season, Florida Softball should be a contender to reach Oklahoma City once again. After collecting a run-rule win on opening night on Thursday, Florida traveled to Tampa for the USF-Rawlings Invitational.

Outside of a sluggish afternoon in the batter's box on Sunday, the Gators mashed their way to five more wins to start the season 6-0.

Florida Softball: Picked Up Where They Left Off

The expected headliner for the event was supposed to be Florida vs Michigan, as the Wolverines were ranked 22nd in the preseason polls. But after Michigan dropped a game to Deleware on Friday, the stage was set for Florida to put Michigan out of their misery.

Florida hit four home runs against Michigan, two from freshman Taylor Shumaker, to win by an eyepopping 13-1 in five innings.

It wasn't completely smooth sailing, though, for Florida as the Gators did meet some resistance in the two games that sandwiched the Michigan game.

Against Deleware, Florida shot out to a 9-1 lead and promptly got the first two outs in the 5th. Kara Hammock ran into trouble after that and Deleware staged a rally to make it 9-5. Ava Brown entered in the 6th and closed out that game for a 10-5 win.

Florida had the reverse problem against Georgia Southern as Brown pitched a complete game shutout and didn't allow a runner to even get to 2nd base after the 1st inning. But the problem for Florida was that their own bats were held in check, and it was still just 1-0 heading into the 6th when Jocelyn Erickson hit a solo home run to spark a three-run inning and a 4-0 victory.

In the finale, there was no drama to be had as Florida pounded the host USF. Florida batted around in the 1st inning and promptly jumped out to a 4-0 lead. The exclamation mark on the weekend came when Kendra Falby launched a ball that might have cleared the entire stadium had it not hit a light pole on its way out.

Florida is now off to a 6-0 start and will have a couple of tune-up games this week against Jacksonville and Stetson before hosting the Bubly Invitational next weekend. Of note, Florida will have two games against #8 Duke, who went 3-2 at the NFCA Leadoff Classic.