It was a disjointed weekend for Florida Softball as the highly anticipated series with Texas had to be broken into two acts. Act one was a double header on Saturday due to anticipated weather on Sunday. Act two was on Monday night.
Both acts revealed something about the Gators as Florida did drop two out of three to the Longhorns but their ability to bounce back in game three means the Gators still have a seat at the able among the genuine contenders in Oklahoma City.
Florida Softball: Katlyn Oxley bounces back
We commented last week how deep the pitching was for the Gators after freshman Katlyn Oxley had a massive series against Texas A&M. With Keagan Rothrock still out, Oxley didn't have a great encore on Saturday.
She was roughed up for five earned runs in just four innings of work on Saturday. In game two, Ava Brown got tagged for five runs herself along with Kara Hammock getting tagged for seven.
So Monday night was a big night for Oxley as she went five innings with no earned runs against even with five walks. It was big from Brown two who cleaned up the 6th and 7th innings with no runs against.
Kendra Falby continues to be insane
The defense for Florida continues to be a juxtoposition of SportsCenter Top Ten moments combined with mind numbing errors that are the single biggest weakness of this team. The Gators committed six errors over the course of the series.
But on the plus side, Kendra Falby continues to add to her highlight reel in center field and once again robbed a homerun from Texas during game two.
Kendra Falby, best defensive center fielder in the country.#GoGators | @kendrafalby pic.twitter.com/Zd3JDKwPJ7
— Gators Softball (@GatorsSB) March 18, 2025
But it's not just her glove carrying the load. She also had five hits during the series, three of which she eventually came around on to score.
Goals still in sight
Taking game three against No. 2 Texas is a reminder that Florida is still a contender to win the national title this summer. They have faced back-too-back top five teams without Rothrock and held serve at 3-3.
Tim Walton claims that Rothrock is still day-to-day and the plan is for her to return at some point. If she does make it back and returns to form, the fact there is the potential for pitching depth behind her should take off some strain in Oklahoma City.
Because Florida has the high end firepower needed to string some runs together against top level pitching. Even in the game one loss when Florida scored just two runs they still had eight hits, they just couldn't string them together.
Florida will now travel to Jacksonville and UNF for midweek games before hitting the road to Auburn for a weekend series.