WCWS FINAL: Florida 9, Oklahoma 3

WHAT HAPPENED: Florida landed on powerhouse Oklahoma for four home runs, including two by senior Skylar Wallace and one job inside the park per junior Kendra Falby, as the fourth-seeded Gators turned the offensive tide against the No. 2 seed and three-time defending NCAA champion Sooners for a 9-3 victory in Monday’s semifinal of the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City. Falby’s homer circle set the tone in the second inning and was immediately followed by Wallace’s leadoff homer, a moonshot to right. Junior Reagan Walsh added a three-point blast in the fourth, for its team-best 18th of the season, and Wallace a two-point field goal in the fifth, as UF piled up and handed OU its most lopsided loss of the season.

By winning a second playoff game in as many days, the Gators are one win over OU to advance to the WCWS best-of-three championship series. They did it by getting 10 hits, half of them for extra bases, and inflicting a lot of damage early on. They were also treated to a gutsy performance from a freshman. Keagan Rothrock (33-8) in the circle. Rothrock, UF’s starter in all 13 playoff games, won for the ninth time in NCAA play and mostly shut down an OU offense — averaging 8.4 points and 9, 8 hits per game – limiting the Sooners to three runs. and seven hits while working around seven walks and a few wild pitches.

OU coach Patty Gasso opted not to pick any of his left-handed aces, All American Kelly Maxwell Or Kiersten Agreementto start the game and instead opted for the senior right-hander Nicole May. Florida took a 3-0 lead after just two innings. The Gators scored one in the bottom of the first singles by Korbe Otis and Walsh. Then came back-to-back homers in the second half. Falby, coming off 9th, hit the first inside-the-park homer in WCWS since 2014 and only the third in WCWS history to break his 0-for-20 slump in Super Regional and WCWS. Wallace came in next and bombed a shot to right for just her second hit in her two WCWS as a Gator. When Florida put runners on the corners with consecutive singles from Jocelyne Erickson and Walsh to start the third, May finished the day and replaced by Deal. Despite inheriting a no-out mess, Deal nearly escaped it with a pair of outings on the field. But UF freshman Ava Brown, who did not play in Sunday’s playoff win over Alabama and was hitless in his previous 10 at-bats, doubled deep to left, bringing Erickson home for a lead of 4-0. The Sooners got one back in the fourth on an RBI single by the catcher Kinzie Hansenbut the Gators tripled that with Walsh’s three-pointer in the fourth.

Oklahoma, the No. 2 hitting team in the country with a .363 average, had its chances. Tiara Jennings launched his 24th home run of the season, a two-run shot in the fifth, to cut UF’s lead to 7-3. The Sooners put two more runners on in the inning, but Rothrock got Kasidi Pickering to run aground and escape the jam. This time it was Wallace who wiped out those two OU runs with his second homer, a two-run shot to the opposite field, for a 9-3 lead in the fifth. Rothrock had to work around a problem of his own in Oklahoma’s seven after walking the bases loaded with two outs, but got Rylie Boone fly away to end the game.

PLAY OF THE GAME: Choose your Falby poison. His retreating, leaping catch on a bad line thrown by Boone resulted in a groundout at second and Pickering parked at third. Pickering, like everyone else in the partisan OU crowd at Devon Park, assumed the ball was going toward the wall and was halfway down the basepath when Falby made his circus catch. Pickering had to ground out to third, robbing the Sooners of what should have been an easy SAC fly score. About 10 minutes later, Falby came to the plate with one out in the second and made her sprint around the bases, igniting the UF dugout.

IN THE HONOR: Wallace entered the game 1 for 13 (the only one with an infield single) in her previous six games in the WCWS as a Gator. This time she went 2 for 3 with a few homers and three RBIs. Falby, meanwhile, not only entered the game 0-for-20 in the last six games, but also 5-for-41 (.122) in the postseason, dating back to the Southeastern Conference tournament. Suffice to say that she came out of her crisis in style. How important is it to have these two playmakers on base? The Gators improved to 33-1 when Falby And Wallace scores in the same game.

AMAZING STATISTICS: By the third inning alone, the Gators had scored more runs (4) than any Sooners opponent in the previous 11 games. UF’s nine points tied the most by OU in its 60 games this season, with a six-point margin to overcome the Sooners’ biggest win of 2024.

NOTABLES:

• Kendra Falby The inside-the-park home run in the bottom of the second inning was only the third home run of the Women’s College World Series.

  • June 3, 2006 – Andrea Duran – UCLA – 3^rd Round – against Texas
  • May 31, 2014 – Callie Parsons – Louisiana – 6^th Round – vs. Oklahoma
  • June 3, 2024 – Kendra Falby – Florida – 2^sd Round – vs. Oklahoma

• That of Reagan Walsh four RBIs in today’s game against Oklahoma are tied for first in this year’s WCWS with Jocelyne Erickson who scored four in yesterday’s playoff win over Alabama.
• The Gators set two single-season records in today’s game as new marks were set in runs scored (514) and runs batted in (487), breaking previous marks of 508 runs (2011) and 479 RBIs (2011).
• Florida hit four homers in today’s game against Oklahoma, which ties the 2024 season high for the program and is the first time against a ranked opponent.

  • February 21 – in North Florida
  • March 1 – vs. DePaul
  • June 3 – vs. No. 2 Oklahoma

• He is also tied for the most home runs in a single game in the WCWS, the only other time coming against Alabama (June 5, 2011).

FOLLOWING: Florida (54-14) and Oklahoma (53-7) were supposed to turn things around and play a playoff game Monday night, but a three-hour weather delay earlier in the day pushed back the semifinal schedule. Instead, the Gators and Sooners will meet Tuesday at a time to be determined (likely early), with the winner advancing to the 2024 WCWS Championship Series, scheduled to begin Wednesday night, against No. 1 seed Texas , or No. 8 seed Stanford. , who will face each other in the other semi-final.