Florida Softball: Unlike others in the SEC, Gators breeze through Regionals

The Gators made light work of their region, outscoring opponents 24-2 over three games
Jake Crandall / USA TODAY NETWORK
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It was a quiet weekend for Florida Softball relative to the rest of the NCAA Tournament. The Gators started a bit slow in their first two games, but the final results on the scoreboard paint a picture of a squad that is dialed in and ready to return to Oklahoma City.

And compared to how the weekend went for some other SEC teams, a quiet weekend in Gainesville is a perfectly fine weekend.

Florida Softball: Just Keep Winning

After run ruling South Alabama on Saturday, the Gators and the Jaguars met again in the Regional Final on Sunday. South Alabama had to win twice in order to advance to Super Regionals.

They never came close to winning once.

Jocelyn Erickson hit a two run home run in the first inning, then Florida had seven straight batters reach base in the third inning en route to a seven run frame. After five innings it was 9-1 and South Alabama was invited to leave Gainesville.

It was not the most exciting weekend of softball, but Florida would take the weekend it had over how some other national seeds in the SEC fared:

  • Alabama - Survived its opening game against 4 seed USC Upstate with a 1-0 win
  • Georgia - Lost to Liberty on Saturday and were down to their final out against the Flames on Sunday before coming back to win
  • Missouri - Lost their opening game to Omaha, battled back through the loser's bracket, and had to go into the ninth inning on Sunday with them to emerge with a 1-0 win
  • Arkansas - A disastrous Saturday led to two losses and sent the Razorbacks packing
  • Texas A&M - Had to fight off Texas State on Saturday for a 1-0 victory

Tennessee and LSU were able to advance to Super Regionals without much drama, and no other SEC school who wasn't a regional host made it out to next weekend.

The Gators will take on Baylor in the Super Regionals. The Bears upset regional host Louisiana to punch their ticket to the next round.

The first two games will be early ones, with first pitch on Friday taking place at 12 PM and at 11 AM on Saturday. If needed, a winner take all game three would be on Sunday.

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