The No. 17 Florida Gators (4-1) completed opening weekend with two wins Sunday. Florida routed Bethune-Cookman 16-0 (1-3) and USF (3-2) 12-3.
Freshman starting pitcher Olivia Miller threw a perfect game against Bethune-Cookman. This outing marks her as the first freshman in program history to do so.
The Orlando native was textbook perfect on Sunday afternoon and had mounds of offensive backup. The Gators scored 16 unanswered runs to secure their third victory of the season.
Florida started its scoring run in the first inning when Korbe Otis drove in Kendra Falby with an RBI single. Skylar Wallace scored Otis with another RBI single.
The Gators tacked on three more runs in the top of the second. Falby recorded her first RBI of the day with an RBI single to score Mia Williams. Otis hit her second RBI single of the day to drive in Williams. Wallace singled to put Otis at third. The duo then stole second and home, respectively.
Florida broke it open in the third, adding on three more runs to extend its lead to 8-0.
The top of the fourth was no different. The Gators tallied up eight more runs on nine hits. Going through the full batting order, Avery Goelz hit two RBI singles in the fourth. Five other Gators got in on the RBI action to extend the lead to 16-0.
Miller ended the day with five strikeouts, her first win and her name cemented in Florida softball history.
Florida finished Sunday with a matchup against USF. Again, the offense was rolling, and the pitching (although not perfect) was impressively solid.
Freshman Keagan Rothrock started her second game and secured her first career win. She finished her day with seven strikeouts, one walk and two earned runs through seven innings.
The Gators started early in another bat-swinging blowout. In the first inning, Jocelyn Erickson hit a sacrifice-fly to score Otis and put the Gators on the board. Then, Ariel Kowalewski singled to drive in Wallace, who was on second base, to make the score 2-0.
Rothrock struck out three of the four batters she faced in the bottom of the first.
With two baserunners on for the Gators, Falby hit her first triple this season to drive in two more runs. Leading 4-0, Rothrock added two more strikeouts in the bottom of the second.
Following a quiet third innings for both teams, the Bulls scored their first run of the day in the bottom of the fourth on a throwing error.
Ava Brown went yard on her first collegiate home run to score Kowalewski in the top of the fifth.
For the second time in the day, a Gator stole home when Katie Kistler slid in to make it 7-1 Florida.
The Gators struck next in the sixth when Baylee Goddard hit a two-run home run to extend the lead 9-1. The Bulls got one back in the bottom of the sixth when Bailey Drapola hit a home run, Rothrock’s first earned run of the game.
Moving to the seventh, Wallace blasted a two-run home run out of the park on the third Gator home run against the Bulls.
Cassidy McLellan got in on the action with an RBI single to score Florida’s last run.
USF tacked on a run on an RBI single, but it didn’t matter. Rothrock and the Gators closed out their Sunday with a 12-3 win.
With a plethora of freshman pitchers and position players, the Gators’ promising young talent looked as impressive as ever.
On a three-game win streak, the Gators head to Jacksonville University Tuesday to take on the Dolphins (2-2) at 6 p.m. They will head back to Gainesville Wednesday for another matchup with the Dolphins, the first home game of the season. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m.
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