{"id":283927,"date":"2026-05-25T19:11:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T19:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/283927\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T19:11:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T19:11:18","slug":"jason-williams-says-florida-coach-orchestrated-ejection-to-avoid-handshake-with-mia-williams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/283927\/","title":{"rendered":"Jason Williams says Florida coach orchestrated ejection to avoid handshake with Mia Williams"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the dream of a Women\u2019s College World Series<\/a> berth slipping away from his team, Florida<\/a> softball coach Tim Walton was ejected in the fifth inning of the Gators\u2019 16-7 loss to Texas Tech<\/a> in the final game of the Gainesville Super Regional on Sunday, May 24.<\/p>\n

According to a prominent former Florida athlete, it just might have been intentional.<\/p>\n

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Former NBA and Gators<\/a> point guard Jason Williams said Walton\u2019s ejection for arguing balls and strikes was premeditated so that the coach wouldn\u2019t have to shake hands after the game with Williams\u2019 daughter, Mia, a standout infielder for Texas Tech who transferred into the program from Florida last offseason.<\/p>\n

REQUIRED READING: How Mia Williams hit-by-pitch saga overshadowed Florida-Texas Tech softball clash<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHe got kicked out because he didn\u2019t want to shake her hand,\u201d Williams said to the Gainesville Sun<\/a>, a part of the USA TODAY Network.<\/p>\n

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The younger Williams played at Florida for two seasons and played all 65 games last season for a Gators team that advanced to the WCWS. After the 2025 season, she transferred to Texas Tech, which was coming off a run to the championship series of the WCWS and has become a haven for high-profile transfers in recent years.<\/p>\n

That move and whatever hard feelings lingered from it hovered over the best-of-three super regional series between the Gators and Red Raiders.<\/p>\n

Over the course of the series, Williams was hit by five pitches, including the first pitch of the first game and the first pitch of the decisive third game. In her second at-bat in Game 3, Williams launched a two-run home run that gave Texas Tech a 5-4 lead and prompted a celebration that earned the Red Raiders a warning from the umpire.<\/p>\n

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Williams ultimately got the last laugh, finishing the series 3-of-7 with five RBI at the plate.<\/p>\n

Her father, who played for Florida for one season before being the No. 7 overall pick in the 1998 NBA Draft, was seen in the crowd yelling toward the Gators\u2019 dugout after a Texas Tech homer and doing the gator chomp. After the Red Raiders\u2019 Game 3 victory, he celebrated with the team on the field at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium.<\/p>\n

Following Texas Tech\u2019s series-clinching win, the teams didn\u2019t shake hands.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt makes no sense to me at all,\u201d Walton said<\/a> when asked about the drama of the series. \u201cI have no idea where that came from. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s fair to the kids in both dugouts. I have no idea where that pot was being stirred. There\u2019s never been a problem ever. Kids transfer all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her first season at Texas Tech, Mia Williams has set program single-season records for home runs (24), runs scored (86), total bases (177), RBI (82) and doubles (22).<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jason Williams: Florida softball coach got ejected to avoid shaking hands with his daughter<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the dream of a Women\u2019s College World Series berth slipping away from his team, Florida softball coach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,120650,120651,10439,11727],"class_list":["post-283927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-jason-williams","tag-mia-williams","tag-texas-tech","tag-tim-walton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283927","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=283927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}