{"id":309945,"date":"2026-06-17T00:38:29","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T00:38:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/309945\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T00:38:29","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T00:38:29","slug":"softball-signs-kairi-rodriguez-florida-gators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/309945\/","title":{"rendered":"Softball Signs Kairi Rodriguez &#8211; Florida Gators"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>GAINESVILLE, Fla. \u2013 The Florida softball program and head coach <a href=\"https:\/\/floridagators.com\/sports\/softball\/roster\/coaches\/tim-walton\/2094\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"2094\" target=\"_blank\">Tim Walton<\/a> announced the addition of catcher Kairi Rodriguez on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>A transfer from Duke, Rodriguez will spend her final season of eligibility with the Gators as a graduate student.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re thrilled that Kairi, a Florida native, is coming back to her home state to finish her career as a Gator,&#8221; Walton said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;She is a hard worker, competitive and brings veteran experience behind the plate. We look forward to helping her accomplish her goals on and off the field.&#8221;<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nA native of West Palm Beach, Rodriguez appeared in 151 games across three seasons in Durham, making 118 starts.<\/p>\n<p>Over her collegiate career, she compiled a .277 batting average (101-for-364) with 21 home runs, 80 RBIs, 20 doubles and 35 walks, while posting a .485 slugging percentage.<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\nAs a redshirt sophomore in 2025, Rodriguez earned NFCA All-Region Second team honors, hitting .320 in 178 plate appearances while tallying career highs in hits (57), doubles (11), triples (2), home runs (9) and RBIs (42).<\/p>\n<p>A standout defender behind the plate, Rodriguez owns a .995 career fielding percentage, committing just three errors in 553 total chances across three seasons.<\/p>\n<p>Rodriguez graduated from Duke with a Bachelor of Art in Psychology.<\/p>\n<p><a data-uw-rm-kbnav=\"anohref\" name=\"_Hlk63067436\" tabindex=\"0\">FOLLOW THE GATORS<\/a><br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n<a a=\"\" aria-label=\"FloridaGators.com\" data-uw-original-href=\"http:\/\/www.floridagators.com\/softball\/\" data-uw-rm-brl=\"PR\" data-uw-rm-ext-link=\"noreferrer=\" href=\"http:\/\/www.floridagators.com\/softball\/\" in=\"\" new=\"\" noreferrer=\"\" open=\"\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" tab=\"\" target=\"_blank\" uw-rm-external-link-id=\"http:\/\/www.floridagators.com\/softball\/$floridagators.com\">FloridaGators.com<\/a><br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n<a a=\"\" aria-label=\"Florida\" data-uw-original-href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/GatorsSB\" data-uw-rm-brl=\"PR\" data-uw-rm-ext-link=\"noreferrer=\" href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/GatorsSB\" in=\"\" new=\"\" noreferrer=\"\" on=\"\" open=\"\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" softball=\"\" tab=\"\" target=\"_blank\" twitter=\"\" uw-rm-external-link-id=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/gatorssb$floridasoftballontwitter\">Florida Softball on Twitter<\/a><br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n<a a=\"\" aria-label=\"Head\" coach=\"\" data-uw-original-href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/_TimWalton\" data-uw-rm-brl=\"PR\" data-uw-rm-ext-link=\"noreferrer=\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/_TimWalton\" in=\"\" new=\"\" noreferrer=\"\" on=\"\" open=\"\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" tab=\"\" target=\"_blank\" tim=\"\" twitter=\"\" uw-rm-external-link-id=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/_timwalton$headcoachtimwaltonontwitter\" walton=\"\" walt>Head Coach\u00a0<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/floridagators.com\/sports\/softball\/roster\/coaches\/tim-walton\/2094\" rel=\"smarttag nofollow noopener\" rev=\"2094\" target=\"_blank\">Tim Walton<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter<br \/>&#13;<br \/>\n<a a=\"\" aria-label=\"Florida\" data-uw-original-href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/GatorsSB\" data-uw-rm-brl=\"PR\" data-uw-rm-ext-link=\"noreferrer=\" facebook=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/GatorsSB\" in=\"\" new=\"\" noreferrer=\"\" on=\"\" open=\"\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" softball=\"\" tab=\"\" target=\"_blank\" uw-rm-external-link-id=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/gatorssb$floridasoftballonfacebook\">Florida Softball on Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GAINESVILLE, Fla. \u2013 The Florida softball program and head coach Tim Walton announced the addition of catcher Kairi&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-309945","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\/309945","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=309945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}