Great series win for the gators!! This has to give the pitching stuff much confidence moving forward. Winning a series (almost sweeping) against a top 5 team on the road. Up next UCF who just took 2 of 3 from top 10 Arizona on thr road. Then Texas comes to town.
Little known scientific fact - 71% of the planet is covered by water - the rest is covered by Falby defensively.
Holtorf is playing the majority of SS this year. However, I am getting more comfortable with Comia taking over next year. She has produced nicely with her bat.
It’s really a catch them off guard play. Big lead with no one covering 2nd. They expect a throw to third or back to pitcher. To SS can cause them to pause for a beat because they weren’t expecting it and give time to throw them out.
Towards the end of the game, all players and even coaches were hugging Kowaleski. Seems like it was left on a good note.
I belive it was a bobbling play for sure that I'm thinking about. I see on her stats it said she had none so it may have been changed to a hit. But you know how that goes.
So far, our fielding is down slightly from last season. in 2024 the team fielded at .975, this year we're at .973. At shortstop, Skylar Wallace was charged with 8 errors in 222 chances, a .964 rate. So far this year, Rylee Holtorf has made 4 errors in 71 chances for a .944 rate. At 3rd, last year Ariel Kowalewski was charged with 3 errors in 135 chances, for .978. So far this year Kenleigh Cahalan has been charged with 5 errors in 94 chances, for a .947 rate. It's interesting that AK only had 135 chances in 69 games, while Cahalan already has 94 chances in 28 games.
This is consistent with what I believe happened with AK. I know there are many differing theories on what led AK to leave UF by people closer to the Gator program than I - but still those are also speculations (some pretty wild). I have zero inside info, but knowing what I do know, I believe AK is a responsible, mature person who felt obligated to notify CTW sometime in the fall (maybe even prior to the fall games) that she was considering going to go to TA&M next year due to some personal development. Some likely reasons (IMHO) were: boyfriend at TA&M getting serious, closer to home, Trish Ford was interested open to transfer, etc. I'm sure there were others. As a result, CTW accepted AK's notice and scoured the portal to not only replace Skylar, but AK as well. He happened upon two prime targets: one who was a battle tested senior who was a great friend of our starting catcher, and another premier infielder/hitter who had enough of PM - as evidenced (I believe) by her reaction to being PH for in the WCWS last year. This move would be a definite step-up from their situations. I've heard an opinion put forth that CTW promised these two infielders starting positions because that is how you convince portal players to commit to your program. I don't know firsthand if that is true, but it seems logical to me - especially if CTW already knew that AK was leaving. I mean I don't doubt that's how we got Jocie and Korbe. Of course, we also had vacancies in those slots from the prior year - just like this year. Logically, knowing AK was leaving, CTW played both Holtorf and Cahalan considerably in the fall games, and conspicuously not AK. Fall game info was hard to come by, for me anyways, but it seems to be true. This led to many fans think AK was beat out by KC. Really? That I can't believe - not just based on fall games. You could even argue this is why we pushed to get Bellaire in early at the last minute - to back up Jocie, instead of waiting till next year as usual - CTW knew AK was leaving. If you still believe AK left UF due to animosity for CTW/UF benching her - that was debunked by their warm greetings on the field today. Also, I don't think CTW would be so quick to bench a player of AK's proven abilities last fall. He's wiser than that. So I refuse to entertain that train of thought.
AK was one of my favorites last season. She seems like a great young lady with her head in the right place. I wish her well at A&M, and I think she will kick ass.
That might not have been Ariel Kowalewski. A top 25 commit for this fall's class is IF Brooklyn Gidley. She's from College Station, Texas and was supposedly at the games this weekend. Could very well have been her everybody was greeting. Softball America on Instagram: "Top 25 recruit, Brooklyn Gidley, recently announced her commitment to Florida She joins top-ranked recruit and travel ball teammate, RHP Caroline Stanton, who committed to Florida last week Read More On3.com/softball @gatorssb | #SoftballAmerica" By the way, the Gators have the #1 overall high school recruit coming in next year as well. Pitcher Caroline Stanton from Buford, GA. Our pitching staff well get even stronger for the 2026 season.
It was Kowalewski because it was happening during the post game handshake line at home plate. The stream caught some of it at the end before it ended.
