Florida Baseball Ready for NCAA Tournament

The day has arrived and the moment is here. The Florida baseball team will begin its 2015 NCAA Tournament run Friday night against the Florida A&M Rattlers. The Rattlers and Gators were scheduled to to play earlier this season but the game was canceled due to rain. Last year the two teams matched up and it was the Rattlers who upset Florida 4-3 on April 23rd. However, Florida is 18-1 all time against FAMU.

Florida earned a national seed for the sixth time in seven seasons. The Gators have reached the baseball promised land three times in that seven year stretch.

After losing six straight NCAA Tournament games in Florida’s last three appearances the Gators and head coach Kevin O’Sullivan look to bounce back this weekend.

“I like the way we’re playing right now, we’re playing with a chip on our shoulder. We’ve got personalities all across the locker room. We have some guys who are kind of funny, some guys who are edgy, I like the way this team is coming together.”

McKethan Stadium in Gainesville will be hosting Florida A&M, Florida Atlantic, and South Florida this weekend. Florida Atlantic and USF will face off Friday at 1 pm. The winner of that game will face off against the winner of UF and FAMU Saturday at 7 pm. The losers of each of Friday’s games will play Saturday at 1pm.

Gator head coach Kevin O’Sullivan named Logan Shore as the starter for Friday. O’Sullivan said earlier this week that “we need someone who’s going to go out there and throw strikes.” Shore has done that this year with a 2.79 ERA in 90.1 innings pitched.

Kevin O’Sullivan said he expects Dalton Guthrie to return to the lineup Friday night after he suffered a wrist injury in the SEC Tournament. Offensively he has been solid at the top of the lineup batting .295 with 22 RBI.

On the mound for Florida A&M will be lefty Ricky Page who is undefeated this season. He holds a stellar 1.32 ERA.

Fridays Florida action can be heard on Country 103-7 The Gator starting at 6:55 pm.