{"id":255707,"date":"2026-05-02T18:52:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T18:52:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/255707\/"},"modified":"2026-05-02T18:52:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T18:52:18","slug":"novickas-grand-slam-lifts-georgia-to-series-win-over-no-8-florida-in-9-1-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/255707\/","title":{"rendered":"Novickas Grand Slam Lifts Georgia to Series Win over No. 8 Florida in 9-1 Win"},"content":{"rendered":"

ATHENS, Ga. \u2013\u00a0Freshman Gabi Novickas’<\/a> walk-off grand slam gave the No. 14 Georgia Bulldogs a 9-1, five-inning, run-rule win over No. 8 Florida on Saturday afternoon in their home finale at Jack Turner Stadium to clinch the series. Georgia improves to 36-17 (12-12) on the season, and the Gators move to 47-9 (17-7).\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\nSOFTBALL | vs. No. 8 Florida | W, 9-1 (5 inn.)
\nWinning Pitcher:\u00a0Randi Roelling<\/a> (16-9)
\nLosing Pitcher: Keagan Rothrock (26-6)
\n\u00a0
\nFast Facts:<\/p>\n


\n\tSaturday’s game started out recognizing Georgia’s seven seniors and graduates. Keirstin Roose<\/a>, Jaydyn Goodwin<\/a>, Sarah Gordon<\/a>, Tyler Ellison<\/a>, Marisa Miller<\/a> and Natalie Ray<\/a> were each honored for their contributions to the Georgia softball program.\u00a0
\n\tLHP Randi Roelling<\/a> made the start on the mound going five innings with three hits, one earned run, two walks and five strikeouts for her 16th\u00a0win of the season.
\n\tFlorida scored its lone run in the top of the third frame to open the scoring. Georgia evened the score with an RBI single up the left line from Roose.\u00a0
\n\tIn the bottom of the fourth, Ellison and Gordon each drove runners in before junior Emily Digby<\/a> lasered a two-run shot to left field to five the Bulldogs a 5-1 lead.\u00a0
\n\tIn the bottom of the fifth inning, freshman Gabi Novickas<\/a> clobbered her second grand slam of the year to hand Georgia the walk-off, run-rule win.
\n\tToday’s game marked the tenth highest single game attendance in program history, with a crowd of 2,280.\u00a0
\n\tThis was the Bulldog’s\u00a0first at home series win against the Gators since 2018, and Georgia moves to 34-50 all-time against the Gators. <\/p>\n

Key Quotes:
\nGeorgia Head Coach Tony Baldwin<\/a>
\nOpening Statement…
\n“I thought the crowd was just amazing and so supportive and gave our team such a boost. We played with just a great sense of urgency, competitiveness and joy. It starts with Randi [Roelling] in the circle. She reminds me of Christie Hamilton, who was that pitcher that kind of made Georgia Softball with her energy and competitiveness. Randi reminds me a lot of Christie. Then, I just thought we kept working our at-bats. That second time through the order, we made a lot of really good adjustments and really proud of the overall weekend. You get a series win against them. That’s our first one since 2018 in the regular season [at home]. You have got to go get it. They’re not going to give you very many of them. I’m just really proud of the way that we came out on senior day and competed and just played Georgia Softball.”
\n\u00a0
\nOn yesterday’s win carrying into today…
\n“The message that we’ve been using a lot over the course of the season is taking in data and not damage. Keep learning the lessons without the emotional cost of the outcomes or failure. Yesterday, they embraced the fact that, ‘Hey, we went at it a little bit different,’ the back half of that game, in terms of our energy and our urgency. They carried that forward into today. I can do all the ‘rah-rah’ stuff that you want. At the end of the day, the players have to decide that they want to commit that. They certainly did. If we can keep that going, we’re going to be a handful as we finish things up.”
\n\u00a0
\n#32 Gabi Novickas<\/a>| Fr. | 1B
\nOn her last hit\u2026
\n“It was so insane. My first two at-bats were just kind of working counts and just trying to get a good pitch to hit. Going into that last one, bases were loaded, we’re up by 5-1 at that point. I just want to get these runs in, so I’m working my hardest. Took a big hit on that pitch, and it paid off.”\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\nOn the difference between today and yesterday\u2026
\n“Yesterday, we had that big inning to open up the game. When we had that big inning, it just changed the momentum. We all just really worked together very well. Taking that into today, we knew we could do it. We wanted to do it for our seniors. Randi pitched great. Our defense was great. Everything clicked today.”
\n\u00a0
\nUp Next:\u00a0
\nNo. 14 Georgia will now await SEC Tournament seeding for next week in Lexington, Kentucky.
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATHENS, Ga. \u2013\u00a0Freshman Gabi Novickas’ walk-off grand slam gave the No. 14 Georgia Bulldogs a 9-1, five-inning, run-rule…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255708,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-255707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}