Florida’s late-season surge keeps getting better.
The Gators, who started 1-11 in SEC play, enter the final week of the regular season with wins in 12 of their last 15 conference games. They took two of three at Texas over the weekend for their first series win over a No. 1-ranked team since 2016.
Florida (35-18, 13-14 SEC) has won five straight series, including against a top-five Arkansas last month, and has all but locked up a 17th straight NCAA Tournament bid. Before heading to Austin, the Gators were projected to be a No. 3 regional seed by D1Baseball.com. They were No. 13 in the RPI Monday and close at home against Alabama.
Their run is reminiscent of last year, when they went into regionals one game over .500 and won five straight elimination games to reach the final four of the College World Series.
Freshman left-hander Aidan King pitched seven shutout innings against the Longhorns on Sunday, allowing two hits and striking out nine, and Brody Donay hit his 14th homer in a 4-1 win. King has allowed one earned run over 14 1/3 innings across his last three starts.
“I don’t remember a freshman pitching on the road like this and pitching as well as he did,” Gators coach Kevin O’Sullivan said, “and if it has happened, it hasn’t happened in a long time.”
The Gators got three hits and three RBIs from Hayden Yost in their 8-2 win Friday. Texas won the second game 5-2 Saturday, scoring all of its runs in the sixth inning.
In the polls
LSU (40-12) is the No. 1 team in the D1Baseball.com and Baseball America rankings. The Tigers won two of three at home against Arkansas and three of their last four SEC series.
D1Baseball ranks Florida State and Texas behind the LSU. The Seminoles (36-11) won four of five last week, including two of three against California, and is a half-game up on North Carolina State in the ACC. Texas (40-10), which started 38-5, has lost five of its last seven games but still holds a two-game lead over Arkansas in the SEC.
Baseball America’s Nos. 2 and 3 teams are Auburn and North Carolina. Auburn (36-15) is coming off a dominating sweep of South Carolina. The Tar Heels (37-11) split against NC State.
Virginia on the rise
Virginia (30-16) has won 10 of its last 11 following a three-game sweep of Miami, which had arrived in Charlottesville off five straight ACC series wins.
The Cavaliers, who hit 116 homers in 63 games (1.84 per game) last season, went deep only 37 times in their first 35 games. They’ve turned up the power during this 11-game stretch, homering 25 times. Henry Godbout has hit five of them.
Plunk, plunk, plunk
Stanford salvaged a win over Grand Canyon in an unconventional way Sunday. The Cardinal went to bat in the bottom of the sixth down 8-0, scored 15 runs over four innings to tie it 15-all and won 16-15 when Gray Bailey hit three straight batters to force in the winning run in the 10th.
Cleanup spot
Iowa, Oregon and UCLA head into the final regular-season weekend alive for the Big Ten title. Iowa and Oregon play in Iowa City with the Hawkeyes holding a two-game lead over the third-place Ducks. UCLA, one game behind Iowa, hosts 12th-place Northwestern. … West Virginia will clinch the Big 12 title if it wins one of three against third-place Kansas at home. Second-place Arizona State, which visits Oklahoma State, remains alive. … Southern’s Cardell Thibodeaux is on pace to have the highest batting average in Division I since 2021. Thibodeaux is batting .453 with 18 homers after batting .235 with three homers at Louisiana-Monroe last year. … Evan Siary struck out 15 and walked none in eight shutout innings in Mississippi State’s 4-1 win over Mississippi on Friday. Siary matched the national season high for strikeouts among power-conference pitchers.
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