Will six straight SEC series wins earn a regional host for Florida?
Updated: May 18, 2025
Perhaps the most remarkable in-season turnaround in Southeastern Conference baseball history concluded in the final regular season game Saturday afternoon at Condron Family Ballpark when the 23rd-ranked Florida Gators evened their SEC record at 15-15 with a 9-3 win over 18th-ranked Alabama. Following a 1-11 beginning in conference play the Gators won six straight weekend series, a feat that puts maximum pressure on the NCAA Tournament selection committee that will choose 16 regional hosts next Sunday when they announce their field of 64 teams.
The Gators (37-19) have played their way into the tournament. The question for the committee is do they choose the hottest team from the nation’s best conference as one of the 16 hosts or do they go with a team that may have a better overall record but didn’t finish the season in nearly an impressive fashion as UF? There are teams with better records, but nobody finished the regular season hotter than the Florida Gators. Starting with a win over then No. 9 (now No. 2) Florida State, the Gators went 14-4 in SEC play with series wins over No. 5 Arkansas and No. 1 Texas. Counting non-conference games, the Gators finished the regular season on a 17-5 roll.
Florida’s 15-15 SEC record is good for tenth place in the final regular season standings, one game behind Ole Miss (37-18, 16-14 SEC), Tennessee (41-15, 16-14 SEC) and Alabama (40-15, 16-14 SEC). Ole Miss and Tennessee earned first day byes at the Southeastern Conference Tournament which begins Tuesday in Hoover, Alabama. Alabama as the No. 9 seed will open the tournament Tuesday against No. 16 Missouri (16-38, 3-27 SEC) while the Gators will face No. 15 South Carolina (28-28, 6-24 SEC).
If the Gators take down South Carolina in the first round, they will face seventh seeded Ole Miss in round two. A couple of wins would certainly enhance Florida’s chances of earning a regional host.
“It’s out of our hands,” Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan said Saturday when asked if the Gators should host. Florida’s sensational finish to the season should exact a measure of influence on the selection committee, but so could a couple of wins in Hoover.
Prior to the SEC Tournament, the league will announce its all-conference selections and superlatives. Count on the coach of one of the teams at the top of the league standings winning coach of the year, but when you consider the number of injuries O’Sullivan has had to compensate for, it should be a no-brainer.
Among the injuries O’Sullivan has had to deal with: Second baseman Cade Kurland (missed 42 games), center fielder Kyle Jones (missed 52 games), right fielder Ty Evans (missed 20 games but returned recently), starting lefty Pierce Coppola (missed two months but returned recently) and shortstop Colby Shelton (missed the last 11 games).
Things went from bad to worse on the injury front in game one of the Alabama series when catcher Luke Heyman suffered a fractured forearm when hit by a pitch in the bottom of the first inning and second baseman Justin Nadeau left after one at bat with a finger injury. That left O’Sullivan with nine position players at his disposal. So Brody Donay went from first base/DH to catcher, left fielder Blake Cyr to second base and Blake Brookins went to left field, burning his redshirt. Donay responded with six hits, two homers and 12 RBI. Cyr struggled at the plate (2-10) and in the field, but he hit a critical double during a 5-run fifth inning Sstirday and turned a second unassisted to first double play in the fourth to snuff out a potential Alabama rally. Playing his first three games of the season, Brookins went 3-10 with a pair of doubles.
The patchwork lineup pounded out 12 hits including home runs by Bobby Boser (No. 15) and Donay (No. 16) in the first inning and Evans (No. 4) in the third. A big day at the plate was necessary because the Gators committed four errors in the field, but even with the miscues, freshman Aidan King gave the Gators 6-1/3 extraordinary innings. King gave up six hits, only one earned run, walked two (one intentional) and struck out eight to improve to 6-2 (2.76 ERA).
Staked to a 2-0 lead in the first on the homers by Boser and Donay, King gave up an unearned run in the second when a throwing error by Cyr on what should have been a routine double play scored Richie Bonomolo Jr. A walk put runners on first and third with one out but King struck out Garrett Staton and Brennen Norton to end the threat without further damage.
"Often times, you see someone makes an error and then it's a four-pitch walk and the inning kind of gets away from you, but he just kept it together and was truly remarkable honestly, to keep his composure like that,” O’Sullivan said of his freshman righthander. “He's shown time and time again that he's beyond his years with his maturity and focus and all those types of things, so that's two great starts in a row against two ranked teams, obviously. So really, really, really happy for him."
The Gators extended the lead to 3-1 in the third when Evans launched a 409-foot homer to center field and 4-1 in the fourth when Ashton Wilson singled, got a stolen base with a contortion that allowed him to evade a tag, and a single to center field by Landon Stripling.
Alabama narrowed the lead to 4-2 in the fifth when Norton reached on a one-out error at shortstop by Boser and scored on a double by Bryce Fowler. A double by Justin Labron and an intentional walk to Kade Snell loaded the bases but King got out of trouble by inducing Bonomolo to bounce to third where Brendan Lawson threw home for the force and the second out. The inning ended when King got Will Hodo to fly out to center field to Hayden Yost.
Florida answered with five runs in the bottom half of the inning, sending nine men to the plate. Donay led off with a walk and moved to third when Cyr doubled down the left field line. Yost grounded out to first, scoring Donay from third. After Wilson was hit by a pitch to load the bases, Stripling hit a grounder to third that Jason Torres threw away allowing Cyr to score for a 6-2 lead. Brookins was hit by a pitch, once again loading the bases for Boser, who singled to right field, driving home Stripling and Wilson. The Gators then pulled off a double steal with Brookins taking home and Boser making it all the way to third when Labron threw the ball away.
Norton doubled to lead off the seventh and moved to third on a Fowler fly ball. That signaled the end of the road for King, who was replaced by Luke McNeillie. McNeillie gave up a sacrifice fly to Labron then got out of the inning with a fly ball to Yost in center. Alabama got a runner on in the eighth on a walk and in the ninth on a throwing error but couldn’t push across any runs.
This was a brilliant way to end a regular season-ending surge that will put the Gators in the NCAA field of 64 whether as a host or on the road as a No. 2 seed in someone else’s regional. Whether home or away, Florida’s chances will improve if Shelton and Nadeau are able to return to the lineup.
"Well, we obviously need to get Justin (Nadeau) back and it's really day-to-day with him, with his finger,” O’Sullivan said. “And hopefully we get Colby (Shelton) back for the regional and that's kind of what we're shooting for. It's just been a lot of disruption.
“We got guys moving around, but they hung in there. I told the team at the end: you probably need to take some time to reflect back on what just happened. Just to be 1-11 and end up at 15 wins in the league, no one's ever done that since the league expanded, since '92, but obviously our job is not finished. At least we put ourselves in at least discussion to host, but we'll see what happens. But can't say enough about this group and their resiliency."
SEC TOURNAMENT
Tuesday games
1. No. 16 Missouri (16-38, 3-27 SEC) vs. No. 9 Alabama (40-15, 16-14 SEC)
2. No. 13 Kentucky (29-23, 13-17 SEC) vs. No. 12 Oklahoma (33-19, 14-16 SEC)
3. No. 15 South Carolina (28-28, 6-24 SEC) vs. No. 10 FLORIDA (37-19, 15-15 SEC)
4. No. 14 Texas A&M (28-25, 11-19 SEC) vs. No. 11 Mississippi State (34-20, 15-15 SEC)
Wednesday games
5. Winner game 1 vs. No. 8 Tennessee (41-15, 16-14 SEC)
6. Winner game 2 vs. No. 5 Georgia (42-14, 18-12 SEC)
7. Winner game 3 vs. No. 7 Ole Miss (37-18, 16-14 SEC)
8. Winner game 4 vs. No. 6 Auburn (38-17, 17-13 SEC)
Thursday games
9. Winner game 5 vs. No. 1 Texas (42-11, 22-8 SEC)
10. Winner game 6 vs. No. 4 Vanderbilt (39-16, 19-11 SEC)
Friday games
11. Winner game 7 vs. No. 2 Arkansas (43-12, 20-10 SEC)
12. Winner game 8 vs. No. 3 LSU (42-13, 19-11 SEC)
Great recap of where they started and where they are Franz, one can only wonder how good the Gator boys would be with out all the injuries, Go Gators, beat USC !
You, Franz, are an outstanding writer and your recap of each game only enhances the joy of having watched the live action. Thanks especially for being there for those of us who can only watch by television. Our home guys in that booth by the way, Nick and Sean and company, are as good as and better than so many others. Just more Gator excellence.
that is a lot of injuries