GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Nothing that freshman pitcher Keagan Rothrock did Friday afternoon during her NCAA Tournament debut surprised her coach. 
 
"Other than learning about her socks being on the wrong feet," Tim Walton said. 
 
Wait, what? 
 

Moments earlier, in talking about the six-plus innings of shutout softball she hurled at Florida Gulf Coast in fourth-seeded Florida's 6-0 victory at Pressly Stadium, Rothrock said her routine in readying for her first taste of NCAA play was no different than any other game since her sophomore year of high school at Whiteland, Indiana, when she began her ascension to the No. 1 pitching prospect in the nation.
 
Rothrock got to the ball yard early Friday, put her left sock on her right foot, her right sock on her left foot, braided some hair, went to hitting practice, then to bullpen. 
 
"Absolutely nothing changed," she said. 
 
The result, included. Rothrock picked up where she left off from last week's Southeastern Conference Tournament at Auburn. There, the rookie right-hander mowed her way through a gauntlet of Georgia, Texas A&M and Missouri – currently the nation's 13^th-, 12^th- and 9^th-ranked teams, respectively – by allowing 13 hits, eight runs, striking out 15 and walking just four over 19.2 innings. When the celebration commenced, the Gators had claimed their first league tournament crown since 2019 and Rothrock was the pitcher of record in all three victories. 

[Read senior writer Chris Harry's "And that's the Ballgame" recap here]
 
In winning her fifth consecutive game, Rothrock improved to 27-6 on the season, including 4-0 in the postseason with a 1.61 ERA. She limited FGCU to just two hits, struck out three and did not walk a batter in throwing only 74 pitches.
 
All of it made sense to Walton, who had witnessed Rothrock execute under similar pressure circumstances – back-to-back Indiana state championships, as well as the Premier Girls Fastpitch national title game in California – on the way to one of his most significant recruiting gets in years. 
 
"I think the story is pretty consistent. I've seen Keagan pitch in some of the biggest games in all of softball, on all stages," Walton said. "She's been a champion and been a winner her entire life."  Resilient too. Rothrock's fabulous prep career was nearly derailed by a devastating bout with compartment syndrome, a painful and severe condition caused by pressure buildup from internal bleeding or swelling of tissues that, to this day, limits how she can train.

"The surgeries she had in high school were pretty extreme," Walton said. 

Could it be that Rothrock is finally rounding back into the player who garnered Gatorade National Player of the Year honors in 2022? Her recent stretch would appear to suggest things are trending that way. 

Though the final score looked lopsided, the Eagles were very much in the game late before the Gators, leading 2-0, added four insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth to give their freshman some breathing room. 
 
Not that she needed it. After UF took its two-run lead on Skylar Wallace's double in the third, Rothrock allowed just three FGCU base runners, only of one of which reached second. 
 
"One of the biggest things is having a great defense behind me and knowing the stuff I have is good enough; good enough to beat anybody," Rothrock said. "Just having trust in that they're going to swing and miss, that I'm going to get outs from my defense and then just letting the offense do the rest." 
 
As she spoke, Rothrock's legs stretched out under the post-game podium and her dirty, infield-stained socks were right there. Sure enough. The "L" was on the right foot and the "R" was on the left.

Such will be the case when the Gators (47-12), winners of nine straight, face South Alabama (33-18-1) in a Saturday afternoon winner's bracket game at 1. And considering Rothrock was summoned to pitch all three games in two weather-crunched days at the SEC Tournament a week ago, here's betting she'll be in the circle for a fifth straight postseason contest.
 
Sock it to 'em, kid.