A&M's SEC Tournament stay ends with 7-3 semifinal loss to Florida
Game #53: #2 Florida 7, #3 Texas A&M 3
Records: Texas A&M (40-13, 15-9), Florida (45-12, 17-7)
WP: Keagan Rothrock (25-6)
LP: Emily Leavitt (9-2)
Box Score
In No. 10 Texas A&M’s first SEC Tournament semifinal appearance in program history, the third-seeded Aggies were overmatched by No. 7 Florida for the fourth time in the last week, 7-3.
After walking off South Carolina earlier on Friday, the Aggies had a short three-hour turnaround before their semifinal game against the familiar Gators.
Just a week before, Florida swept A&M — outscoring the Aggies 22-12 — and winning two one-run games to secure the No. 2 seed at the SEC Tournament in Auburn.
Florida’s offense entered the contest leading the SEC in batting average, on-base percentage, runs per game, slugging percentage, stolen bases and walks.
The Gators also landed the top half of their lineup on the All-SEC team, and five of those all-conference players accounted for six of Florida’s nine hits on Friday night.
A&M’s bats never got hot against the SEC Freshman of the Year Keagan Rothrock, who pitched a complete game and allowed just three runs on five hits.
Florida’s red-hot bats exploded for five runs in the bottom of the second inning thanks to two home runs but were held in check by Shaylee Ackerman and Brooke Vestal after the initial damage.
While A&M’s pitching held the Gators to three straight scoreless innings, Koko Wooley — the hero of A&M’s quarterfinal walk-off — caused chaos to get her squad on the board.
Wooley wreaked havoc on the basepath on a bunt single that scored two runs to trim the deficit to three in the top of the fourth inning.
The Aggies added one more run in the top of the fifth but never produced enough sustained damage to chase Rothrock, who closed the game with back-to-back 1-2-3 innings.
The Gators added two more on a double from the SEC Player of the Year Jocelyn Erickson to put the game out of reach in the late innings.
Trisha Ford’s second season in Aggieland has changed the standard for SEC success.
A&M reached its highest conference win total (16) since 2017, earned its highest SEC Tournament seed (3) in program history, won its second-ever SEC Tournament game and played in its first SEC Tournament semifinal.
Up next, the Aggies will await their fate on Selection Sunday at 6 p.m. CT.
More postseason softball is expected at Davis Diamond next weekend when NCAA Regional action begins.