{"id":274448,"date":"2026-05-17T20:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T20:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/274448\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T20:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T20:43:09","slug":"final-florida-5-georgia-tech-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/274448\/","title":{"rendered":"FINAL: Florida 5, Georgia Tech 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>NCAA TOURNAMENT<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nGAINESVILLE REGIONAL\u00a0\/ CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>GAINESVILLE, Fla.\u00a0 \u2013 Sophomore outfielder <a href=\"https:\/\/floridagators.com\/sports\/softball\/roster\/taylor-shumaker\/17779\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"17779\" target=\"_blank\">Taylor Shumaker<\/a> homered, doubled and scored three times to pace the Florida offense and junior <a href=\"https:\/\/floridagators.com\/sports\/softball\/roster\/keagan-rothrock\/17778\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"17778\" target=\"_blank\">Keagan Rothrock<\/a> won pitched a one-hitter for her third win in the circle in as many days, as the sixth-seeded Gators defeated Georgia Tech 5-2 Sunday at Pressly Stadium to complete a three-game sweep of the Gainesville Regional.<\/p>\n<p>With the victory, UF will be home next weekend for the NCAA Super Regional round, with a berth to the Women&#8217;s College World Series on the line.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Shumaker led off Florida&#8217;s first with a double down the left-field line and scored on <a href=\"https:\/\/floridagators.com\/sports\/softball\/roster\/townsen-thomas\/17780\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"17780\" target=\"_blank\">Townsen Thomas&#8217;<\/a> infield groundout three batters later to get the Gators on the board. Shumaker came up in the UF second with two outs and a runner on and parked her 20th homer of the season over the left-field wall for a 3-0 lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Gators added a run each in the third and fourth innings to go ahead 5-0.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Rothrock, meanwhile, flirted with the program&#8217;s first NCAA no-hittter in five years, but the Yellow Jackets plated a pair of runs in their sixth on a two-out double by Addison Leschber. Rockrock (29-6) worked all seven innings, allowed the lone hit, struck out three and walked five.\u00a0&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" height=\"433\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/HMW_8552.JPG\" style=\"display: inline-block;\" width=\"650\"\/>&#13;<br \/>\nPitcher Keagan Rothrock (left) and catcher Ella Wesolowski during Sunday&#8217;s NCAA Regional title round Sunday.&#13;<\/p>\n<p>PLAY OF THE GAME:\u00a0Shumaker&#8217;s homer was the 40th of her career \u00a0&#8212; still in her sophomore season &#8212; and moved the UF star into 10th place on the program&#8217;s all-time list. With a 3-0 lead, and Tech having combined for just six runs in its three previous tournament games, it just felt like a lot for the Yellow Jackets to overcome.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>STAGGERING STATISTIC: In their 12 home NCAA regionals dating to 2013, the Gators are 36-1 &#8212; with 22 consecutive wins &#8212; and have outscored their opponents by a combined 268-17, with 18 mercy-rule victories.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>UP NEXT:\u00a0Florida (50-10) will host the Gainesville Super Regional next weekend, with times and dates (and opponent) to be determined. The Gators will take on either 11th-seeded Texas Tech (54-6) or Ole Miss (36-25), who face off later Sunday in the championship round of the Lubbuck Regional, with the host Red Raiders needing to win one of two potential games. It&#8217;ll mark the Gators&#8217; 15th home Super appearance in program history and third straight.<\/p>\n<p>NOTABLES&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\tThe Gators have now won 22 consecutive NCAA Regional games at home&#13;<br \/>\n\tFlorida&#8217;s NCAA Regional run-rule win streak going back to the 2024 season ended on Sunday. The seven straight run-rules is an NCAA Tournament record&#13;<br \/>\n\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\tThe Gators came into this weekend tied for the longest streak with 2022-24 Oklahoma and 1999-2000 Arizona&#13;<br \/>\n\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t&#13;<br \/>\n\tFlorida recorded two shutouts in three of its NCAA Regional games. Since\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/floridagators.com\/sports\/softball\/roster\/coaches\/tim-walton\/2094\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"2094\" target=\"_blank\">Tim Walton<\/a> took over in 2006, the Gators have tallied 61 shutouts in the NCAA Tournament, the most of any team in the NCAA in that span&#13;<br \/>\n\tThe Gators recorded two doubles against the Yellow Jackets, one from <a href=\"https:\/\/floridagators.com\/sports\/softball\/roster\/taylor-shumaker\/17779\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"17779\" target=\"_blank\">Taylor Shumaker<\/a> and one from <a href=\"https:\/\/floridagators.com\/sports\/softball\/roster\/gabi-comia\/17773\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"17773\" target=\"_blank\">Gabi Comia<\/a>, against Georgia Tech, bringing Florida&#8217;s season total to 114 and setting a new program single-season doubles record&#13;<br \/>\n\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\tThe single-season record was previously set by the 2024 team who had 112 doubles&#13;<br \/>\n\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t&#13;<br \/>\n\tShumaker now has 18 doubles on the season, which is the fourth-most in a single-season in program history&#13;<br \/>\n\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t\tThe sophomore also has 87 runs scored this season, the second-most in a single-season by a Gator. The single-season run record is held by Skylar Wallace who had 90 in 2024&#13;<br \/>\n\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t&#13;<\/p>\n<p>QUOTES<\/p>\n<p>Coach <a href=\"https:\/\/floridagators.com\/sports\/softball\/roster\/coaches\/tim-walton\/2094\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"2094\" target=\"_blank\">Tim Walton<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\n* (Opening statement): &#8220;Congratulations to Georgia Tech on a great season. They earned their way here, and the other two teams as well, Texas State and Florida A&amp;M, made for a fun regional. I tip my cap to our fans. I thought they did a really good job all three days \u2014 early Sunday, early Saturday and early Friday. I&#8217;m really proud of what we&#8217;ve built here. People want to come watch us. I&#8217;m exicted for what this team has accomplished thus far. It&#8217;s really important for these two [players] right here. For Gabi, this was really her first go as a starter in a regional and she did a really great job this weekend and has for the whole season. And Taylor, leading off and setting the tone for us really well. She had a big hit the other way and home run. I&#8217;m also proud of the way Keagan pitched. She competed really well and allowed just the one hit. She did a really did a good job and carried us this weekend. I&#8217;m proud of that.&#8221;<br \/>\n* (<a href=\"https:\/\/floridagators.com\/sports\/softball\/roster\/keagan-rothrock\/17778\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"17778\" target=\"_blank\">Keagan Rothrock&#8217;s<\/a> performance): &#8220;Keagan has carried that load for us and gotten better. There have been moments she would fold under pressure. She didn&#8217;t fold. She walked five people and then made some really good pitches, so it says a lot about Keagan and her ability to go out there and compete. Today was really hot. One of the hotter days we&#8217;ve had this year, but especially for her. She threw 99 pitches. She did a great job.&#8221;<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/floridagators.com\/sports\/softball\/roster\/taylor-shumaker\/17779\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"17779\" target=\"_blank\">Taylor Shumaker<\/a> \u00a0\u00a0<br \/>\n* (On her lead-off, first-inning double to set the tone after going 0-for-3 Saturday): &#8220;Definitely going into the postseason I feel like short-term memory is something we&#8217;re going to have to deal with. Obviously, you can have a great day one day and not a great day the next day. It&#8217;s a matter of having good at-bats and finding a way to get on base so my team can score. We have a really good lineup that works really well together.&#8221;<br \/>\n* (On hittting her 40th career homer as a Gator): &#8220;It feels great. We have so many Gator Greats who have done so much for this program. I feel like, ultimately, I just have to chalk it up to my teammates, chalk it up to my coaches being able to learn me as a hitter and figure out ways to have me at my best, but also having hitters around me that allow me to get the pitches I want to hit.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/floridagators.com\/sports\/softball\/roster\/gabi-comia\/17773\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"17773\" target=\"_blank\">Gabi Comia<\/a> \u00a0<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n* (On Rothrock&#8217;s\u00a0performance): \u00a0&#8220;She&#8217;s great to play behind. She has an aura to her and just carries herself so well. She&#8217;s really great at talking to us and making eye contact. We&#8217;ve established our relationship when she&#8217;s there and we&#8217;re there behind her. We&#8217;ve got her back.&#8221;\u00a0<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n* (On turning over the lineup from the No. 9 spot): &#8220;It&#8217;s honestly really freeing down there, especially when I have to go up the next inning and lead off the next inning, Taylor&#8217;s right behind me and she just gives me all the confidence in the world. She just says her little thing to me every time, and just eye contact is a really big thing, and she&#8217;s really good about making eye contact with me, and I know that at the bottom of the lineup, as long as I can turn it over to her, we&#8217;re going to win a lot of games. I just have to do my job and Taylor&#8217;s really good about just having my back and these girls are about having each other&#8217;s back.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>UAA communications director <a href=\"https:\/\/floridagators.com\/staff-directory\/lauren-staff\/3406\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"3406\" target=\"_blank\">Lauren Staff<\/a> contributed to this report.\u00a0<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nEmail senior writer <a href=\"https:\/\/floridagators.com\/staff-directory\/chris-harry\/66\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"66\" target=\"_blank\">Chris Harry<\/a> at chrish@gators.ufl.edu\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NCAA TOURNAMENT&#13; GAINESVILLE REGIONAL\u00a0\/ CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND\u00a0 GAINESVILLE, Fla.\u00a0 \u2013 Sophomore outfielder Taylor Shumaker homered, doubled and scored three&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-274448","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\/274448","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=274448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}