Mia Williams watched Texas Tech beat Florida 16-7 in Game 3 of the Gainesville Super Regional on Sunday — and when the series ended the teams did not shake hands.
The absence of a postgame handshake was the closing note on a series that featured repeated hit-by-pitches, bench chirping and an ejection. Williams, who transferred from Florida to Texas Tech, was hit five times in the three-game set, including with the first pitch of Friday's game and again on the first pitch Sunday by Florida's Keagan Rothrock.
Williams answered on the field. After being hit by the first pitch on Sunday, she homered in her next at-bat, a two-run shot, and finished the series 3-for-7 with five runs batted in as Texas Tech secured its spot in the Women's College World Series.
Florida coach Tim Walton, ejected during the series for arguing balls and strikes, said he could not explain what happened between the teams. "It makes no sense to me at all," Walton said. He added later: "I have no idea where that came from. I don't think that's fair to the kids in both dugouts. I have no idea where that pot was being stirred. There's never been a problem ever. Kids transfer all the time."
Gerry Glasco, Florida's pitching coach, criticized the attention paid to transfers and to the incidents themselves. "With all the pressure on her and everything that's been done to create as much as attention as you can—it's a normal thing in this day and age for athletes to transfer, and we want to make a big deal out of it is uncalled for," Glasco said. "When they did pitch to her, she took the challenge and hit it out. She won every battle that was thrown in her way today."
Texas Tech's dugout reacted loudly after Williams was hit with the first pitch Sunday, and the series included warnings and tense moments between the benches. Jason Williams, Mia's father and a former Florida basketball player, summed one fallout in blunt terms: "He got kicked out because he didn't want to shake her hand." The comment came alongside the fact that Walton's ejection was for arguing calls, not for refusing a handshake.
Williams herself downplayed the off-field noise. "I don't really pay attention to any of the things that happen off the field. I stay very far from social media. I'm not really that type, but mentally coming into this, I knew it was going to be a dog fight playing against my former team. They know me a little, and I know them. It was going to be a dog fight. Good battle. They did really good," she said.
The facts of the series are stark: Texas Tech advanced with a 16-7 Game 3 victory; Williams was struck by pitches five times across three games; she turned one Sunday plunk into a decisive two-run homer and finished the set 3-for-7 with five RBIs. The Red Raiders are headed to the Women's College World Series for the second consecutive year.
The tension between the teams — the hit batters, bench chirps after the first-pitch plunk on Sunday and the lack of a handshake at the end — turned what should have been a routine postseason exchange into the story of the series. Walton, asked about the talk that exploded around the games, said: "On TV, they were saying there might be a bench-clearing brawl. Never seen that in softball in my life. That would have been a first, so there you go, we're just stirring it up again. I don't understand. It makes no sense." He added, "Maybe that was for the better with the anxiety of the series."
Texas Tech's win is simple and decisive in the record book; the unanswered question is whether the unresolved animus — the missed handshake and the disputed intent behind the hit-by-pitches — will be the lasting memory of a series that also produced a clear individual response from the player at its center. For now, Williams and Texas Tech move on to the Women's College World Series while Florida is left to reconcile how a rivalry settled on the field finished with no handshake off it.
