A week ago today Florida baseball was watching the NCAA Tournament Selection Show wondering if they had done enough to clinch their 16th straight Regional bid.
The Gators landed in the Stillwater Regional as one of the last teams in the field, joining No.1 Oklahoma State, No.2 Nebraska, and No.4 Niagara.
After beating Nebraska and falling to Oklahoma State in game two, Florida’s chances of advancing to the Super Regionals were slim; 12% according to recent history.
“We take it one game at a time,” head coach Kevin O’Sullivan said after Florida’s loss to Oklahoma State. “We were in this position last year. We have enough pitching to get through tomorrow’s game and hopefully we are fortunate enough to move on and have another chance to play Oklahoma State. We do have enough pitching, but it’s really one game at a time.”
“It gives us confidence, I don’t think it’s time to hit panic mode or freak out, we’ve been here before,” outfielder Tyler Shelnut said. “Like you said, we had to do it last year at our place. It’s something that can be done, but we just have to play our best baseball.”
Florida needed to win three straight games to advance, a feat they accomplished just once in the regular season when the Gators won five straight games vs North Florida and Columbia (Feb.20 – Feb.25).
The Gators would go on to do exactly that, eliminating Nebraska and forcing a game seven vs Oklahoma State, where O’Sullivan’s squad found a dominant pitching performance from Jake Clemente, Frank Menendez, and Fisher Jameson to lift Florida past the Cowboys by a score of 4-2.
“These guys just kept fighting,” O’Sullivan said postgame. “We played three games in about 28 hours. Yesterday was a long day.”
Florida baseball will travel to Clemson next weekend to take on the Tigers in the Super Regional stage, where the two ballclubs will play a best of three series for a ticket to the College World Series.
Game times and TV schedule have yet to be announced.
“We’ve proven that we can play with anybody in the country,” O’Sullivan said at the end of the regular season.
Florida proved that they belonged in the NCAA Tournament after completing an epic comeback in the Stillwater Regional.
The Gators have now been to ten Super Regionals in Kevin O’Sullivan’s 17 seasons as head coach.