Florida Softball looks to get momentum rolling in mid week series vs Jacksonville

After a mostly successful opening weekend, Florida Softball are officially off an running with their 2024 campaign. The Gators went 4-1 at the USF-Rawlings Invitational and are gearing up to host the Bubly Invitational this weekend.

In between is a two game set against the Jacksonville Dolphins.

Florida Softball: It's Flipper

Jacksonville opened their season 2-2 at the River City Leadoff, with wins over Ball State and Fordham and losses to James Madison and Southern Miss.

The Dolphins over the weekend were a top heavy lineup with minimal production beyond three bats. Allison Bratek will be the main threat for Jacksonville after hitting .538 with two home runs to open her 2024 campaign.

Kailey Harrigan and Madison Bratek both went over .400 as well, but no other Dolphin player had a batting average over .200 to open the season.

Pitching wise Skylar Waggoner will take the bulk of the work for Jacksonville. She went 12 innings over the weekend with a 2.25 ERA. She struck out eight and walked three.

The main storyline to follow with the Gators will be its own pitching staff. Florida is sporting three freshmen on its staff and there should be plenty of jockeying for position in the early going of the season. Keagan Rothrock took the bulk of the innings for Florida over the weekend and gave up just two earned runs over 19 innings of work.

Olvia Miller tossed a perfect game against Bethune-Cookman and earned SEC Freshman of the Week as a result. Ava Brown went eight innings and didn't allow a single run.

Tonight's game will be at 6 PM at Jacksonville with tomorrow's game also starting at 6 PM and will be at home.