Gators NCAA Regional Revealed

Coastal Carolina and Florida do share some history in the postseason. Back in the 2016 College World Series, Coastal Carolina defeated Florida in the first game in Omaha and eventually won it all that year. 

At one point, making the postseason looked very unlikely for Florida. They began conference play by going 1-11 in their first four series after being swept by Tennessee, Georgia and Vanderbilt and taking one game against Ole Miss.

However, their fortunes changed beginning on April 8 and running until the end of the regular season. Florida went 17-5 during this stretch and won six straight SEC series. Furthermore, three of the series came against top 25 teams in then-No. 1 Texas, then-No. 5 Arkansas and Alabama.

O’Sullivan’s squad even made a run at hosting a regional this postseason. All the Gators needed to do was combine this strong end-of-the-season run with multiple wins in the SEC Tournament, and it probably would’ve been just enough to be a top 16 national seed. 

They started the conference tournament with an 11-3 win over South Carolina in the first round before being pitted against Ole Miss, which was also in contention for hosting a regional. 

Unfortunately for the Gators, they couldn’t carry their hot hitting in the first round into this contest and wound up losing 3-1 to the Rebels, who made a deep run in the SEC Tournament to secure one of the regional host bids. 

A positive for the Gators entering the Conway Regional is that they should be getting shortstop Colby Shelton back. He had been sidelined by a hamate injury since Game Two against Arkansas on April 26. O’Sullivan mentioned after their regular season finale that they were shooting for his return to be at the beginning of the regional. 

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