PALO ALTO, Calif. – The Florida softball team fell 8-0 in six innings to No. 9-seed Stanford Saturday in the winner's bracket of the NCAA Palo Alto Regional. UF will turn around to play the winner of Loyola Maymountvand Long Beach State later today in an elimination game.

The Gators (37-21) offense started the game against the Cardinal (42-13) and All-America ace NiJaree Canady (15-1) and were able to reach base via a nasty hit-by-pitch off the forearm of graduate senior Charla Echols. Echols was stranded at first to end the frame and was replaced at third base by Sam Roe heading into the bottom of the second inning.

Stanford plated the first run of the game in the home half of the second to take an early 1-0 lead. The Cardinal began the inning with a leadoff walk and a single to right field, was followed by a SAC bunt back to the circle that moved the runners to second and third.

In the next at-bat, Florida right-handed starter Elizabeth Hightower (15-13) fielded a sharply hit ball back to the circle and chased the runner back to third before flipping the ball to Avery Goelz at first base, but Stanford scratched across the run shortly after as a chopper to third base was misplayed that allowed the runner to score.

The Cardinal added to the lead in the bottom of the third inning and pushed it out to 6-0. Stanford led off the frame with a single to center field to place its third straight leadoff batter on base. Kaneshiro stretched the lead out to 3-0 with a two-run home run and added another run via a wild pitch and two more scored later on an RBI double inside the third base bag.

After a series of defensive changes in the bottom of the fifth inning that included Lexie Delbrey entering in relief of Hightower, Stanford was able to add one run on a bases loaded walk to push its lead out to 7-0.

Rylee Trlicek entered the circle in the bottom of the fifth and held the Cardinal scoreless. Emily Wilkie erased a leadoff single up the middle when the runner tried to swipe second base and Trlicek notched a strikeout and a groundout to close out the frame.

However, Stanford went on to end the game in the bottom of the sixth inning via a SAC bunt throwing error after a leadoff walk followed by a wild pitch.

The Gators tallied a pair of hits in the contest as Skylar Wallace earned a single to left in the third inning and Falby with a single through the left side in the sixth, while Kinsey Goelz also reached via hit-by-pitch to lead off the sixth inning.

The Gators return to action later this evening at 7 p.m. (PT)/10 p.m. (ET) and will face the winner of LMU and Long Beach State on ESPN+.
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