GAINESVILLE, Fla.– In the grand scheme of things, Keagan Rothrock could have done a lot worse than giving up a measly one run in the first inning. Especially, with the explosiveFlorida offense still with 27 outs.
That was the glass-is-half-full way things were presented to Rothrock, the Gators' freshman phenom pitcher, after fourth-seeded UF's 4-2 defeat of Baylor in Friday NCAA Gainesville Super Regional, the biggest game of her young career. Not only did she shake off the early run, but there came the Florida bats, practically on cue, with three runs in their first to put her back in command.
[Read senior writer Chris Harry's 'And That's the Ballgame' recap here]
Rothrock, though, wasn't playing the happy talk game.
"Giving up a run is not cool," she said.
But bouncing back the way the Gators did was very cool, especially for their coach.
"I'm glad [with] what she said about giving up the run," Tim Walton grinned. "It's the quiet competitor in her."
Here's betting Florida, winner of 12 in a row, will be better for it because Rothrock will be better. Don't be surprised if her steely determination rears itself Saturday when the Gators (50-12) face the Bears (35-22) in Game 2 at Pressly Stadium, where a UF win will send the team to the Women's College World Series next week for the 12thtime in program history.
There are 11 players on the current Florida roster who have never played on the grand stage in Oklahoma City. Those same 11, by proxy, had never participated in a Super Regional. Rothrock, obviously, was one of them.
She'd started the previous seven games in the circle, had collected six wins and Friday improved to a stellar 29-6 on the season. But when you were the 2022 Gatorade National Player of the Year and No. 1-ranked prep prospect in the country, you have high standards for yourself. Those standards don't change in pressure-packed situations.
Actually, they probably do.
They increase.
Rothrock walked the first batter she faced on four pitches. Three batters later, Baylor's Aliyah Binford lined an RBI single to left to go up 1-0. Three batters after that, Rothrock had loaded the bases, but got Zadie LaValley to fly out to escape the inning with minimal damage.
"I told her, 'One [run] was one. One wasn't two, three, four or five,' " Walton said. "She didn't have to be perfect. Just throw your pitches and give us your best effort. That's all we ask for."
Rothrock's teammates didn't make her stew on the rocky start. Instead, they gave her three runs right away, courtesy of catcher Jocelyn Erickson's RBI single to tie the game, then two more when Katie Kistler doubled in pair.
She went to the circle in the second with a 3-1 lead.
"New inning, new game," Rothrock said. "Just knowing the offense had my back, I was able to go out there, have fun and play free."
That was her takeaway.
This was Walton's: "We got punched in the face and and we punched back twice. I'm really proud of that."
The second punch came in the third after Rothrock gave up a solo homer to Binford that closed the score to 3-2. That's where things stood in the fifth when UF senior outfielder Korbe Otis reached down and golfed a solo shot of her own, her ninth of the season, to restore the two-run lead.
That's all Rothrock needed. As it turned out, after the Binford homer, only two Bears reached base the rest of the game; only one over the last three innings. Her final stats showed seven innings, six hits, two earned runs, five strikeouts, one walk and one anxious first inning that exactly no one – except the perfectionist in her – will remember.
"The key, for me, was the first inning of a first," Walton said. "The first inning of the first game of the season. The first inning of a regional. First inning of a Super regional. Those are always important. There's hype. There's a lot of attention around them. A lot of work goes into that. Being able to have scout, have intel – we haven't played [Baylor] this year – so there's a lot of anxiety or anxiousness or anticipation of the first inning. So after that you start getting settled in."
The goal now for Rothrock and the Gators: Experience all those anxietiesin the first inning at OKC.
It's there for the taking.
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