Florida Softball’s bats delivered a message in another perfect weekend

Florida Softball had another perfect weekend and moved to 12-0 on the season after sweeping the Florida Classic. Over the course of three days, the Gators beat Marshall twice, Georgia Tech twice, and beat FIU once.

With the backdrop of Florida having yet to face its toughest tests this season, these are three observations on the Gators from their perfect weekend.

Kenleigh Cahalan has taken a huge leap to start the season

Last year, Kenleigh Cahalan was a solid bat for Florida and finished the season with a .302 average and ten home runs, but 12 games into the 2026 campaign, she has emerged as Florida’s most dangerous bat. 

Over the five games this weekend, she had six hits, two of which were home runs, to go with two walks and five RBIs. She is currently sporting a .486 batting average and a whopping 1.539 OPS. Florida as a whole currently has six hitters with a batting average above .400 and Florida has scored at least five runs in every game it has played this season.

Pitching depth is not as sharp in week two

One of the things we noted from Florida's opening weekend at the USF-Rawlings Invitational was how Florida's pitching depth seemed on point. That depth was not quite as sharp this past weekend as Florida leaked runs all weekend long, including six runs to FIU, five runs to Georgia Tech, and four runs to Marshall.

Keagan Rothrock pitched a total of 9.1 innings over the weekend, giving up eight earned runs over three appearances. Ava Brown pitched 10.0 innings and was better, with just one earned run against. 

Of the rest of Florida’s pitchers, Olivia Miller was the sharpest, going 5.1 innings over two appearances with no earned runs against.

Real challenges still await

Keen observers who have followed this program for any length of time will tell you that this start for Florida isn’t uncommon. Traditionally, the Gators stay away from any major tests early on during the non-conference part of play and won’t really get tested until they head west in the last week of February.

The glass-half-full observation is that Florida’s bats are in form, and this looks like a deep lineup in 2026. The glass-half-empty observation is that we have seen this film before, and sometimes the ending isn’t what the beginning looks like.

Basically, what we are saying is that Florida should host a Regional round in 2026 and should cruise into Super Regionals. Beyond that, we can’t make any declarative statements until they face the meat of their schedule.