Florida Gators Softball Punches Ticket To Women's College World Series Championship Series

The Florida Gators have been the most dominating team in Oklahoma City this weekend and were the first to earn a berth into the championship series that begins on Monday night.

Standing in their way were the Baylor Bears who had dropped an 11-0 decision to the Gators in the opener on Thursday. Baylor worked their way back to Sunday by eliminating Florida State and Kentucky on Saturday. They were dealt a similar fate on Sunday afternoon though albeit by a slimmer margin.

"I had some warriors this year," Baylor Coach Glenn Moore said after the loss,"and I thought we had a shot at it." The truth is, the Bears did have a shot at it. They were the first team to score a run on Florida in Oklahoma City and their three-run fifth inning had the Gators on the ropes.

After plating runs in the top of the third and fourth innings, Florida produced three in the fifth to take a commanding lead. Sensing their season slipping away, Baylor responded in the bottom half with runs from Justine Young, Jordan Strickland and Robin Landrith to pull to within 5-3.

"We had some good swings on Hannah," Strickland said about the fifth inning rally, "and so it was nice to finally break through in whatever inning that was.  We tried to keep that really going but just kind of fell short."

The Baylor rally was cut short when Florida's Taylore Fuller came home, on a bases loaded hit by pitch, to put the Gators up by the final score of 6-3.

"I have a lot of respect for our players and I think they've all bought in and they understand the workman‑like program we're going to run," Florida Coach Tim Walton said after the game.  "We expect perfection in all areas."

There's no such thing as a "perfect" sports team but so far Walton's Gators have been the closest thing we've seen to perfection at the Women's College World Series.