The Southeastern Conference started Super Regional play last week with five teams, with all of them hosting in the best-of-three format.
Four of those teams were top eight national seeds: No. 1 Florida, No. 4 Texas A&M, No. 6 Mississippi State was No. 8 LSU.
MSU, LSU and South Carolina were all swept, while A&M lost in three games. So much for home field advantage.
The SEC has had at least one team in the College World Series every year since 1993, but that streak was in jeopardy until Florida defeated archrival Florida State 7-0 Monday to reach Omaha for the fifth time in the last seven years under coach Kevin O’Sullivan.
For the first time since 2007, when only Mississippi State made it, college baseball’s most powerful conference will have but one representative among the final eight vying for the sport’s biggest prize.
The SEC has had three teams in the CWS in three of the last five years, with Vanderbilt winning it all in 2014 and then losing in the finals last season. The league has twice had a record four teams in Omaha: Arkansas, Georgia, LSU and South Carolina in 2004 and Alabama, LSU, Auburn and Mississippi State in 1987.
But now the Gators are left alone to carry the torch for a proud baseball conference. They will be carrying with the weight of an entire conference on their shoulders Sunday when they open up against Coastal Carolina.
When Monday’s game was over and the dogpile commenced, it was as much an emotional relief as pure celebration because the top-seeded Gators have been pegged as college baseball’s best team since the preseason. Though Florida (52-14) didn’t win the Southeastern Conference, it has carried an obvious burden of trying to live up to the hype.
“We’ve had the bull’s-eye on our back from Day One,” O’Sullivan said in a postgame ESPN interview. “I’m excited to be taking this team back to Omaha.
“I just can’t say enough about our team. We had the No. 1 ranking going into the season, and we got some guys that are going to be high draft (picks), and it’s very difficult to juggle those things.”
Florida has never won the CWS. It lost in two games in the finals in 2011 to South Carolina. So, is the year the Gators finally breakthrough in Omaha?
They certainly have the pitching to do it.
Dating back to Game 1 against FSU, Florida hasn’t allowed a run in the last 22 innings. Pitchers Logan Shore and Shaun Anderson combined foun a two-hit shutout in Game 2, while A.J. Puk, Dane Dunning and Anderson — all of which were selected in the first three rounds of the major league draft last week — combined for a five-hit shutout on Monday.
Based on its pitching prowess, Florida has to be one of the favorites in Omaha, but that staff will be tested immediately. Coastal Carolina has hit an NCAA-leading 94 home runs this season and is tied for seventh in stolen bases with 107.
Not since Miami in 1999 has a No. 1 seed won the College World Series. If the Gators’ pitching staff (2.93 ERA) continues to hold offenses down like it has all season, Florida could be ready to end that trend.
