{"id":273574,"date":"2026-05-16T16:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T16:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/273574\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T16:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T16:44:10","slug":"famu-softball-falls-to-florida-now-facing-elimination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/273574\/","title":{"rendered":"FAMU softball falls to Florida, now facing elimination"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Florida A&amp;M softball made program history Friday morning, taking the field in the NCAA Tournament as the Southwestern Athletic Conference champion for the first time.<\/p>\n<p>The challenge was steep.<\/p>\n<p>The Rattlers opened NCAA Gainesville Regional play against No. 6 overall seed Florida and fell 12-0 in five innings at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the loss, Florida A&amp;M remains alive in the double-elimination regional and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DYZvghZOFn8\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">will face Texas State<\/a> on Saturday in an elimination game.<\/p>\n<p>FAMU softball makes NCAA Tournament history<\/p>\n<p>Friday marked Florida A&amp;M\u2019s 14th NCAA Regional appearance overall and its first since joining the SWAC. The Rattlers entered the tournament after winning the 2026 SWAC Softball Championship with a dramatic walk-off victory over Southern last weekend.<\/p>\n<p>FAMU finished the game with one hit against a Florida pitching staff led by Keagan Rothrock, who struck out six batters in three innings.<\/p>\n<p>Freshman Amya Ramos recorded the Rattlers\u2019 lone hit of the contest.<\/p>\n<p>Florida A&amp;M pitcher Zoryana Hughes got the start in the circle and battled through two innings against one of the nation\u2019s top offensive lineups. Hughes allowed six runs on five hits while walking four batters.<\/p>\n<p>Sariah Espada pitched the final two innings in relief.<\/p>\n<p>Florida offense powers Gators past FAMU<\/p>\n<p>Florida wasted little time taking control.<\/p>\n<p>The Gators scored in the first inning on an RBI double by Kenleigh Cahalan before breaking the game open with four runs in the second inning. Ava Brown delivered a two-run double during the rally, while Townsen Thomas added a sacrifice fly.<\/p>\n<p>Florida added three more runs in the third inning, highlighted by Taylor Shumaker\u2019s RBI single and a chaotic play that resulted in Gabi Comia stealing home.<\/p>\n<p>The Gators finished with 12 runs on 12 hits and drew seven walks.<\/p>\n<p>Shumaker led the way offensively, going 3-for-4 with five RBIs, including a three-run home run in the fourth inning that helped trigger the run-rule ending.<\/p>\n<p>Florida improved to 49-10 overall with the victory.<\/p>\n<p>Rattlers continue postseason journey<\/p>\n<p>Although the result was lopsided, Florida A&amp;M still accomplished a major milestone by representing the SWAC on one of college softball\u2019s biggest stages.<\/p>\n<p>The Rattlers finished the regular season with 32 wins and captured the SWAC Tournament title to earn the league\u2019s automatic NCAA Tournament bid.<\/p>\n<p>Now, FAMU will attempt to keep its season alive Saturday afternoon against Texas State.<\/p>\n<p>First pitch is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. ET in Gainesville.<\/p>\n<p>Florida A&amp;M vs. Florida box score<\/p>\n<p>Team12345RHEFlorida A&amp;M00000011Florida1434X12120<\/p>\n<p>Key performers<\/p>\n<p>Florida A&amp;M<\/p>\n<p>Amya Ramos: 1-for-2<\/p>\n<p>Jordan Douglas: walk<\/p>\n<p>Zoryana Hughes: 2.0 IP, 5 H, 6 ER<\/p>\n<p>Sariah Espada: 2.0 IP, 7 H, 6 ER<\/p>\n<p>Florida<\/p>\n<p>Taylor Shumaker: 3-for-4, HR, 5 RBI<\/p>\n<p>Jocelyn Erickson: 3-for-3<\/p>\n<p>Ava Brown: 2-for-4, 2 RBI<\/p>\n<p>Keagan Rothrock: 3.0 IP, 6 strikeouts<\/p>\n<p>\n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida A&amp;M softball made program history Friday morning, taking the field in the NCAA Tournament as the Southwestern&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1814,589,28,11994,30,29,2329,58707,75148,11474,13086,11995],"class_list":["post-273574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-famu","tag-featured","tag-florida","tag-florida-am","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-hbcu","tag-hbcu-sports","tag-ncaa-softball","tag-ncaa-tournament","tag-softball","tag-swac"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273574","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=273574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}