Walsh home, Rothrock 3-hitter carry third seed Florida over Georgia 6-1 in Super Regional

GAINSVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Regan Walsh smashed a three-run home run in the first inning and Keagan Rothrock threw a two-hitter to carry third-seeded Florida to a 6-1 win in the opening game of the Gainsville NCAA Super Regional on Friday.

Game 2 in the best-of-3 series is Saturday morning as Florida tries to completely erase the memory of the last two times the teams met in a Super Regional, both at Florida. The underdog Bulldogs knocked off the overall top-seed in two games in 2016 and blanked the Gators twice in 2021.

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Walsh's one-out drive, her 14th, to leftfield on a 3-2 pitch came after Randi Roelling (11-9) walked Taylor Shumaker and hit Jocelyn Erickson.

That was all Rothrock (15-5) needed. She took a no-hitter into the sixth, facing just one batter over the minimum. Emma Castorri doubled leading off the sixth, went to third on a single by Dallis Goodnight and scored on a throwing error by Erickson, the catcher, on a pickoff attempt. Rothrock struck out seven, walked two and hit one batter.

Florida's Ava Brown had a two-run home run, her in seventh in the last 11 games and 11th overall, and Kendra Falby had an RBI double in the fifth inning.

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AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports