Gators will face East Carolina Friday in Conway Regional

Starting pitchers such as Liam Peterson give the Gators a good shot to advance in the field of 64 (UAA)

Now that the regular season and Southeastern Conference Tournament are a thing of the past, Florida (38-20) graduates to a phase of the season that actually favors Kevin O’Sullivan and the Gators. Florida’s pitching staff works well in the 4-team, double elimination format of the NCAA Tournament where the Gators were assigned Monday to the Conway, South Carolina regional hosted by No. 13 national seed Coastal Carolina (48-11), champions of the Sun Belt Conference and winners of 18 consecutive games.

The No. 2 seed in the Conway Regional, the Gators will open play in the regional Friday against East Carolina (33-25), which beat Tulane to win the American Athletic Conference championship. Coastal Carolina will face Fairfield (39-17) of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

The key to the 4-team regional format is to stay out of the loser’s bracket. It’s possible to win and advance to the Super Regional with three wins and that bodes well for the Gators. Kevin O’Sullivan can rely on three outstanding starting pitchers – Liam Peterson (8-3, 4.10 ERA, 95 strikeouts in 68 innings); Aidan King (6-2, 2.76 ERA, 72 strikeouts in 65-1/3 innings) and Pierce Coppola (3-0, 1.86 ERA, 38 strikeouts in 19-1/3 innings). If O’Sullivan can get quality starts of five or more innings, he won’t have to go deep into the bullpen. Luke McNeillie (5-2, 4.65 ERA, 71 strikeouts in 50-1/3 innings), who has given up only three hits and no earned runs in his last 8-1/3 innings, is the primary set up guy with Jake Clemente (2-1, 3.37 ERA, 7 saves, 74 strikeouts in 50-2/3 innings) as the closer.

King made the All-SEC freshman team while Clemente made second team All-SEC.

If shortstop Colby Shelton is cleared to return from a wrist injury that has kept him sidelined for a month, it will help offset the loss of first team All-SEC catcher Luke Heyman, who fractured his forearm when hit by a pitch in the first game of the Alabama series that ended the regular season. Shelton was hitting .377 with 19 doubles, seven homers and 35 RBI when he was injured.

The return of Shelton will enable O’Sullivan to realign a defense that has been consistently shuffled due to the injury to Shelton and Justin Nadeau. Nadeau returned to the lineup in the SEC Tournament so he should be back at second base. Bobby Boser, who has been filling in at shortstop, would be able to move back to third base, where he made the All-SEC defensive team, and All-SEC freshman Brendan Lawson would be back permanently at first base instead of shuffling around the infield.

First game opponent East Carolina went 13-14 in AAC regular season play, but the Pirates caught fire in the conference tournament, winning four straight games including an 8-2 decision over Tulane in the championship game. The Pirates don’t hit with much consistency (.275 team batting average) or much power (69 home runs) and they don’t steal many bases (67 in 58 games). The pitching staff has a 5.04 team ERA. The Pirates rank fourth in the AAC in hitting, pitching and fielding.

It's likely the Gators will face sophomore lefty Ethan Norby (7-5, 3.81 ERA, 109 strikeouts in 82-1/3 innings) on Friday. Norby, who was a freshman All-America selection in 2024, pitched 7-1/3 shutout innings against Coastal Carolina back on March 7, allowing three hits while striking out 19. He picked up two wins in relief to seal the AAC Tournament, going 1-2/3 innings against South Florida in the semifinals and 2-2/3 innings against Tulane in the championship game.

The two guys in the middle of the infield are ECU’s top offensive threats. Second baseman Braden Burress (.392, 4 HR, 29 RBI, 16 stolen bases) leads off and shortstop Dixon Williams (.296, 13 HR, 48 RBI, 22 stolen bases) hits third.

This is the 35th time East Carolina has made an NCAA regional. The Pirates are the current record holder for most NCAA appearances without ever making it to the College World Series.

The other teams in the Conway Regional:

Coastal Carolina (48-11): The Chanticleers defeated the then No. 1 ranked Gators at the College World Series in 2016. Coastal went on to beat Arizona in the championship round to claim the school’s only national title in any sport. Coastal went 26-4 in Sun Belt Conference play. In their only game against an SEC team, Coastal lost 9-2 to Alabama back on February 21. Coastal won the Sun Belt with a 4-0 record, taking out Southern Mississippi, 7-5, in the championship game.

The Chanticleers hit .286 as a team and their 3.24 team ERA ranks second in the country. Ace of the pitching staff is righty Jacob Morrison (11-0, 1.90 ERA, 84 strikeouts in 85-1/3 innings). The other two starters are both righthanders, Cameron Flukey (6-1, 3.16 ERA, 93 strikeouts in 79-2/3 innings) and Riley Eikhoff (6-2, 3.19 ERA, 58 strikeouts in 73-1/3 innings). The closers are Ryan Lynch (2-1, 0.61 ERA, 7 saves, 34 strikeouts in 29-2/3 innings) and lefty Dominick Carbone (5-0, 2.36 ERA, 5 saves, 44 strikeouts in 34-1/3 innings).

At the plate, catcher Caden Bodine (.333, 3 HR, 36 RBI, 47.7 percent on base percentage) is the leadoff man. Left fielder Sebastian Alexander (.301, 9 HR, 47 RBI) is the speed man (53 runs scored, 22-26 on stolen bases) and second baseman Blake Barthol (.282, 12 HR, 49 RBI) is the power guy.

In the Sun Belt Conference, Coastal ranked second in hitting, fifth in home runs (55), first in pitching and first in fielding.

Fairfield (38-17): The Stags finished second to Rider in the MAAC regular season but went 3-0 including two wins over Rider to win the conference championship. The 39 wins are the most in school history. Fairfield ranks second in the MAAC in hitting (.295) and home runs (67). Fairfield led the MAAC in pitching (4.86 ERA) and fielding.

Offensively, Fairfield is led by third baseman Dean Ferrara (.381, 8 HR, 57 RBI, 21-23 stolen bases), right fielder Matthew Bucciero (.351, 14 HR, 66 RBI, 21-25 stolen bases) and shortstop Luke Nomura (.331, 14 HR, 52 RBI, 16-19 stolen bases). It was a grand slam by Ferrara that got the Stags to the MAAC championship game and a solo homer in the 10th by Nolan Colby that beat Rider in the championship game.

Fairfield’s 3-man weekend rotation is lefty Baker Bowen (8-1, 3.20 ERA, 64 strikeouts in 76 innings), and righthanders Ben Alekson (9-1, 3.24 ERA, 78 strikeouts in 89 innings) and Kyle Lesler (5-1, 3.97 ERA, 51 strikeouts in 56-2/3 innings).

Regional pairings (SEC teams in bold face)

1. NASHVILLE: 1. Vanderbilt (42-16); 2. Louisville (35-21); 3. East Tennessee State (X); 4. Wright State (38-19)

2. AUSTIN: 1. Texas (42-12); 2. UT-San Antonio (44-13); 3. Kansas State (31-24); 4. Houston Christian (32-23)

3. FAYETTEVILLE: 1. Arkansas (43-13); 2. Kansas (43-15); 3. Creighton (41-14); 4. North Dakota State (19-32)

4. AUBURN: 1. Auburn (38-18); 2. North Carolina State (33-19); 3. Stetson (40-20); 4. Central Connecticut (31-15)

5. CHAPEL HILL: 1. North Carolina (42-12); 2. Oklahoma (35-20); 3. Nebraska (32-27); 4. Holy Cross (31-25)

6. BATON ROUGE: 1. LSU (43-14); 2. Dallas Baptist (40-16); 3. Rhode Island (38-20); 4. Little Rock (24-32)

7. ATHENS: 1. Georgia (42-15); 2. Duke (37-19); 3. Oklahoma State (28-23); 4. Binghamton (29-24)

8. CORVALLIS: 1. Oregon State (41-12-1); 2. TCU (39-18); 3. Southern California (35-21); 4. Saint Mary’s (35-24)

9. TALLAHASSEE: 1. Florida State (38-14); 2. Northeastern (48-9); 3. Mississippi State (34-21); 4. Bethune-Cookman (37-21)

10. OXFORD: 1. Ole Miss (40-19); 2. Georgia Tech (40-17); 3. Western Kentucky (x); 4. Murray State (38-13)

11. CLEMSON: 1. Clemson (44-16); 2. West Virginia (41-14); 3. Kentucky (29-24); 4. South Carolina-Upstate (36-23)

12. EUGENE: 1. Oregon (42-14); 2. Arizona (38-18); 3. Cal Poly (41-17); 4. Utah Valley (28-27)

13. CONWAY: 1. Coastal Carolina (48-11); 2. FLORIDA (38-20); 3. East Carolina (33-25); 4. Fairfield (39-17)

14. 11. KNOXVILLE: 1. Tennessee (43-16); 2. Wake Forest (36-20); 3. Cincinnati (32-24); 4. Miami, OH (35-21)

15. LOS ANGELES: 1. UCLA (42-16); 2. UC-Irvine (41-15); 3. Arizona State (35-21); 4. Fresno State (31-27)

16. HATTIESBURG: 1. Southern Miss (44-14); 2. Alabama (41-16); 3. Miami (31-24); 4. Columbia (29-17)