Softball Transfer Portal

I still think this team is loaded. They have two national high school players of the year, a Florida high school player of the year, a former SEC Player of the year, and the current collegiate freshman of the year. Plus, I think Comia is a star in waiting. It doesn’t get much better than that.

 

Hope you're right, but we shall see. I think we get picked between 5th and 8th in the pre-season SEC polls behind Oklahoma, Texas, Texas A&M, Tennessee and maybe even Alabama, South Carolina and Arkansas. I've already seen a way too early national poll that has us 13th nationally with 7 SEC teams ahead of us. For 2026 there are more unknowns with the Gators than proven stars at the D1 level (high school accolades don't mean much, IMO). Tim Walton always fields a highly competitive team, but we don't know how this new group of players will gel as a team, nor how many of them will stand the test of the SEC grind. I agree that our infield defense should be better, but it's going to come down to pitching and how well the replacements for Falby, Walsh, Otis, Williams and Holtorf will hit. That's a lot of offensive production to replace.

 

Rick says it's a rebuilding year. What other source is needed?

 

With revenue sharing, NIL and pay to play corporate money involved, every year is a rebuilding year. And we don't have the $$$ to rebuild as well as the teams that are able to stack their rosters.

 

On3 is still showing Florida in competition with FSU for Florida Gulf Coast pitcher Allison Sparkman. Two other still unsigned players I wish we had a chance at are Amari Harper of Texas A&M & Bailey Lindemuth from Texas Tech. Harper is supposedly choosing between Oregon & Tennessee, but I can find no information on who has offered Lindemuth.

 

Using “conference Only” stats, we lose 3 of 4 players with batting averages over .297 team average, Falby Otis and Walsh. We also lost the next two highest average batters, Williams and Holtorf. I have taken the liberty to rate this group, in the above order as 5, 5, 5, 4, 3.
These, so far, are being replaced by two 4’s and two 3’s from the portal.
We return three untested players in Comia, Thomas and McLellan, and a .203 hitter in Cahalen.
Brown’s .250 and Erickson’s .210 averages were not that bad as they had decent OPS’s. Of course, our shining star, Shumaker, returns.
Our Conference ERA was 4.31, slightly worse than 2024 when it was 4.12. Rather than getting into details, I would think 2026 will be north of 4.00 even if Rothrock regains her 2024 form.
2026 has a lot of questions: Can Shumaker repeat her performance. Can Erickson regain her form. Will Rorthrock recover. Will we find a strong leader. Can our untested players step up.
Hopefully CTW will once again get the best out of the players and reach the post season objectives.

 

That sounds rough but I do believe our pitching will be better. I also expect someone or two to take big steps forward.

 

Good info @willum6677!