What to know about the Gainesville NCAA softball regional: Schedule, parking, TV
Florida softball will host the NCAA Tournament's Gainesville Regional from May 17-19 at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium.
Here's what you need to know for this weekend:
What teams are in the NCAA softball Gainesville Regional?
Florida, winners of eight in a row and the SEC Tournament for a record sixth time, welcomes in-state foes Florida Gulf Coast and Florida Atlantic, as well as South Alabama to KSP.
The winner of this regional plays the winner of the Lafayette Regional in the super regional round. That features No. 13 overall seed Louisiana-Lafayette, Princeton, Baylor and Ole Miss.
The Gators (46-12) stormed through conference competition in Auburn. They defeated Georgia, Texas A&M and Missouri by a combined score of 22-8.
Freshman Keegan Rothrock excelled in the circle with six earned runs and 14 strikeouts over 19 2/3 innings and three starts.
At the plate, Skylar Wallace hit home runs in all three games and drove in eight runs. Freshman Mia Williams stepped up to the plate (literally), hitting two home runs and driving in six.
The Eagles (37-19) won the ASUN Tournament and five in a row. The Owls (41-14) were co-champions of the American and received their first top 25 ranking in program history. The Jaguars (32-18-1) received an at-large bid out of the Sun Belt.
What days, times, channels are Florida softball games?
The first-round games will be played on Friday, the second on Saturday and then the regional championship on Sunday.
The games will start at noon ET on Friday and 1 p.m. ET on Saturday. Sunday's time has yet to be determined. They will be aired on ESPN's family of networks.
Florida softball NCAA regional history
Florida holds a 52-21 all-time record in NCAA Regionals. It's the 18th time the Gators have hosted a regional, and the 14th time they've received a top-five seed.
What is the format of an NCAA softball regional?
The regional tournament is double-elimination, with two games in the opening round on Friday: 1-seed vs. 4-seed and 2-seed vs. 3-seed.
The winners and losers of each matchup will play Saturday. The undefeated team will advance to the final, while the team with two losses is eliminated.
Both teams that are 1-1 will play a second game on Saturday and the winner will advance to the final on Sunday. That team will have to beat the undefeated team twice to advance into Super Regionals.
Parking at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium
Parking is available along Hull Road across from the stadium. Additional parking is located in the Florida Ballpark main lot, and across Museum Road at the Fifield lot.
How to get tickets for Florida softball in the NCAA Regionals
Tickets go on sale at 6 p.m. Monday through the UAA ticket office. Tickets can be purchased here. UF students can get in for free, like any other game. Reserved seating for all sessions is $60 and $30 for plaza/berm seating.
What else should I know before attending the NCAA softball Gainesville Regional?
UF enforces a mobile ticket policy for all sporting events. Fans can either access tickets through the Florida Gators app or through FloridaGators.com/myaccount.
Full NCAA softball Gainesville Regional schedule
*All times eastern
Friday, May 17
Game 1: FGCU vs Florida, noon, SEC Network
Game 2: FAU vs South Alabama, 2:30 p.m., ESPN+
Saturday, May 18
Game 3: Winner of game 1 vs Winner of game 2, 1 p.m.
Game 4: Loser of game 1 vs Loser of game 2, 3:30 p.m.
Game 5: Loser of game 3 vs Winner of game 4, 6 p.m.
Sunday, May 19
Game 6: Winner of game 3 vs Winner of game 5, Time TBD
Game 7 (if necessary): Winner of game 3 vs Winner of game 5, Time TBD
Noah Ram covers Gainesville-area high school sports and University of Florida athletics for The Gainesville Sun. Contact him at Nram@gannett.com and follow him @Noah_ram1 on Twitter.
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: NCAA softball: Gainesville regional game times, TV schedule, parking
