Gators Baseball Lands No. 2 National Seed in NCAA Tournament

The Florida Gators baseball team secured the No. 2 national seed in the 2023 NCAA Baseball Tournament.  After falling short in the SEC Tournament, the Gators will look to advance to the Super Regional for the first time since 2018.

The Gators are the 𝗡𝗼. 𝟮 𝗡𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝗲𝗲𝗱!

📰 → https://t.co/urvWin8YT5#GoGators pic.twitter.com/heCebpwwta

— Florida Gators Baseball (@GatorsBB) May 29, 2023

SEC Tournament Recap

In the second round of the SEC tournament, Florida defeated Alabama 7-6 to move on to the third round where they would face off against Vanderbilt. The team would defeat the Commodores 6-3, allowing the Gators to advance to the semifinals. However, the team fell to Vanderbilt 11-6 and the Commodores would go on to win the SEC Tournament.

Home Advantage

The Gators will host UConn, Florida A&M and Texas Tech at Condron Family Ballpark beginning on Friday in the Gainesville Regional.  The winner of the regional will play the Columbia Regional winner in a best-of-three Super Regional. South Carolina, Campbell, NC State and Central Connecticut State are the four teams competing in Columbia.

Florida (44-14) are the SEC regular season co-champions, winning 42 regular season games, This is the second most in program history.  The Gators are looking to win their second College World Series, winning their only title in 2017.

For the 13th time in the O'Sullivan Era, the #Gators are @NCAA Regional hosts!

🗞️ → https://t.co/diipAc45oX#GoGators pic.twitter.com/vJmsX6At2s

— Florida Gators Baseball (@GatorsBB) May 29, 2023

Players to look out for

Offensively, Wyatt Langford leads the Gators with a batting average of .398 and 17 home runs this season. Additionally, Jac Caglianone led Florida in home runs with 28 and recorded a .349 average on the year.

For Texas Tech, Nolen Hester and Gavin Kash will be a serious threat. Hester hit .374, with 56 runs and 77 hits. Kash had 81 RBIs on the year and hit .333.

The Huskies are led by Dominic Freeberger. He hit an impressive .349, with 57 runs and 60 RBI.  Ben Hurber had a batting average of .330 this season and has 48 runs, 65 hits and 16 home runs which leads the team.

For Florida A&M, Janmikell Bastardo is going to be the biggest threat with a batting average of .342.  He also has 54 runs, 69 hits and 12 home runs. Ty Hanchey could also be a major issue, hitting 10 home runs with 74 hits, 56 runs while recording a .356 batting average.

Weekend Game Times

Texas Tech and UConn will open play on Friday at noon, and the Gators will play Florida A&M at 5:30 p.m.