Softball On SI

Florida Softball Gators Participating in MLB's Derby X This Summer

Allison Smith|
Florida celebrates their 5-2 win over Georgia during the third game of the NCAA super regionals softball game in Gainesville, FL on Sunday, May 25, 2025. The team heads to the College World Series in Oklahoma. [Alan Youngblood/Gainesville Sun]
Florida celebrates their 5-2 win over Georgia during the third game of the NCAA super regionals softball game in Gainesville, FL on Sunday, May 25, 2025. The team heads to the College World Series in Oklahoma. [Alan Youngblood/Gainesville Sun] | Alan Youngblood / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

As part of Major League Baseball's expanded investment into softball, the MLB's Home Run Derby X competition, which started its tour last night as part of MLB All-Star Week in Atlanta, will feature some familiar faces for Gator and softball fans in Jocelyn Erickson, Taylor Shumaker, and Amanda Lorenz.

Erickson and Schumaker, current stars on the Gator roster wrapped up a fantastic 2025 season with Erickson winning the 2025 Rawlings Gold Glove Award (catcher) and 2025 NFCA All-Gulf Region Third Team.

This is the second year in a row that Erickson has won the Rawlings Gold Glove Award. In her career at Florida behind the plate, Erickson has only made three errors for a .995 fielding percentage.

Erickson is known as a force behind the plate for her pitchers, but her offense and threat to put the ball over the fence are also lethal. The last two seasons, she has combined for a .344 batting average, 126 hits, 30 home runs, 145 RBIs, and a slugging percentage of .680.

Then comes the explosive, now sophomore, Shumaker off her hot freshman campaign. Shumaker took the SEC and country by storm this season, earning 2025 All-SEC First Team, NFCA All-Gulf Region First Team, NFCA Freshman of the Year, Softball America's Freshman of the Year, and NFCA First Team All-American honors. She ranked second in the country in RBIs with 86, fifth in runs with 72, and 11th in home runs with 22.

Shumaker hit .389 on the season with 79 hits, .808 slugging percentage, and in her 203 at-bats, only conceded 22 strikeouts.

Lorenz is Gator royalty, and she has a long list of accolades, including being named the 2019 SEC Player of the Year in her senior season and being the No. 2 overall draft selection in the NPF draft to the USSSA Pride. Lorenz was the 2024 Athletes Unlimited Pro Champion and is now playing in AUSL for the Volts.

During her four years at Florida, Lorenz combined for a career batting average of .407, 248 runs scored, 301 hits, 41 home runs, 59 doubles, 196 RBIs, .685 slugging percentage, and .549 on-base percentage.

To this day, Lorenz still holds the record for career batting average, on-base percentage, doubles, and walks at Florida.

MLB Home Run Derby X Format Explained

Home Run Derby X is a completely different format than what we are used to seeing when a player has their dad or a coach toss them balls that they can moonshot for the allotted time. Instead, this version is a 3-on-3 team format and has defense.

Each player still gets two minutes and thirty seconds to hit. However, now, teams earn defensive points for catches and offensive points for home runs. Bonus points are earned by hitting a home run through a target placed in center field.

During each at-bat, batters can call for a hot streak of five swings where everything counts as double, and in the final minute, they can tag in a teammate to finish with a flourish, but the opposing team can also earn double for their outs during the hot streak.

MLB Home Run Derby X Locations

The Derby X hit All-Star week in Atlanta, but Atlanta is its first of seven stops throughout the country from July to September.

Fans can watch remaining Derby X matchups in Round Rock, TX on July 26, Durham, NC on August 9, Oklahoma City, OK on August 23, Des Moines, IA on August 30, Kansas City, KO on September 13, and the finals in Salt Lake City, Utah September 19-20.

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Allison Smith
ALLISON SMITH

Allison Smith is an expert in leadership and organizational behavior in collegiate and professional women’s sports. Smith is a professor (Georgia State University), researcher, and writer. Smith holds a Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee in Kinesiology and Sport Studies. Smith’s research centers on combatting the underrepresentation of women leaders in sport, lack of organizational structure for work life integration for sport employees, and lack of programming and oversight for preparing athletes to transition to life after sport. Since graduating with a bachelor’s in journalism in 2011, Smith has sought opportunities to write about sports as a contributing writer focused on the growth of women’s collegiate, Olympic, and professional sports in this new age and movement for multiple outlets including Athletic Director U, and now Forbes.com. As a former Division I and II pitcher and Division III pitching coach Smith will bring unique insight and expertise to Softball on SI.

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