The Gators’ road to repeat as National Champions begins this Friday in Gainesville.
For the third time in school history the Florida Gators are the No. 1 team in the NCAA tournament. Despite losing six of their last seven games the Gators’ complete body of work earned them the top spot. Florida previously earned the No. 1 see in 2012 and 2016. Both years the Gators advanced to Omaha but fell short of winning a National Championship.
The Gainesville Regional will host No. 2 Jacksonville (39-19), No. 3 FAU and No. 4 Columbia. Florida is 1-1 against Jacksonville this season and 1-0 against FAU. Florida played Columbia in 2017, sweeping the Lions in Gainesville.
For the first time ever the top 16 teams were seeded. Previously the selection committee would only seed eight teams, and then geographically pair regionals together for Super Regionals. This year the committee seeded 16 teams, so Florida is paired with the No. 16 see, N.C. State. There is a familiar foe in that region, should Florida advance to a Super Regional, in Auburn.
The Gators will likely throw freshman Tommy Mace on Friday against Columbia. Junior Brady Singer is the projected starter for Saturday with Jackson Kowar throwing in Florida’s third game.
Florida will open play on Friday at McKethan Stadium at 1 pm after asking to play in the earlier game to try and beat the forecasted rain. In the past two postseasons seven night games have been affected by rain or lightning