Florida Gators' Reagan Walsh hits a three-run home run in the fourth inning Monday against the Oklahoma Sooners during a Women's College World Series semifinal game at Devon Park in Oklahoma City. [Brett Rojo-USA TODAY Sports]

Women’s College World Series: Gators Force Deciding Semifinal Game

The No. 4 national seed Florida Gators beat the No. 2 national seed Oklahoma Sooners 9-3 Monday in the semifinals of the Women’s College World Series at Devon Park in Oklahoma City to force another matchup with the Sooners.

The Gators (54-14) used four home runs to do the damage against the Sooners (56-7) and force a rematch at 2 p.m. Tuesday (ESPN, ESPN 98.1-FM/850-AM WRUF) to determine who advances to the championship finals. Oklahoma also saw its 20-game win streak in the NCAA Tournament snapped.

Semifinal Box Score

Long Ball Drives Offense

The Gators jumped on Oklahoma starting pitcher Nicole May (14-3) early. She gave up four runs in two innings.

Reagan Walsh started the scoring with a RBI single to give the Gators a 1-0 lead.

Kendra Falby broke out of her slump in the bottom of the second with an inside-the-park home run (her 2nd) to make it 2-0. Skylar Wallace followed her with a solo home run (her 14th and first of the game) to make it 3-0.

Kierston Deal came in relief and pitched 3.2 innings and gave up five runs.

Ava Brown hit a RBI double to make it 4-0 in the third. After the Sooners got a run back, Walsh hit a three-run home run (her 18th) to make it 7-1.

Wallace hit her second home run of the game (her 15th) in the fifth to make it 9-3 after a two-run home run from the Sooners.

Another Complete Game

UF’s Keagan Rothrock (33-8) threw her 27th complete game of the season. She gave up three runs on seven hits and struck out four batters. She walked seven.

The runs for Oklahoma came off a Kinzie Hansen RBI single and a Tiare Jennings two-run home run.

Up Next

Tuesday’s winner will advance to the WCWS Finals scheduled to start Wednesday. A win would put Florida in the finals for the first time since 2017 when they lost 2-0 to the Sooners. Oklahoma is seeking its fourth consecutive national title.

Top seed Texas (49-8) advanced to the finals with a 1-0 win against Stanford in the other semifinal Monday.

About Jackson Colding

Jackson Colding is a second-year journalism sports and media student at the University of Florida.

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