GAINESVILLE, Fla. – It’s playoff time in college baseball, and the No. 8 Florida Gators will play regional hosts for the first time since 2024 and the 20th time in program history.
The other three teams in the Gainesville Regional are the Miami Hurricanes, the Troy Trojans and the Rider Broncs.
The Gators will play Rider Friday at 1 p.m., followed by the Canes playing Troy at 6 p.m. It is double-elimination style with games scheduled through Sunday or Monday if a game seven is necessary.
Both the Gators and Canes are feeling confident going into the weekend. Although Florida had a disappointing exit in the SEC Tournament, the Gators have won 10 of the last 12 games. If Florida wins the regional, it will host the super regional, the last step before the College World Series in Omaha.
“Every team in this field, 1 through 64, are all talented enough,” Gators head coach Kevin O’Sullivan said after practice Thursday. “Teams are winning their conference tournaments. Everybody is playing their best baseball at the end of the year.”
This is Coach O’Sullivan’s 18th career NCAA appearance in his 18 years of coaching, the 13th as the Gators’ head coach.
In a surprise, the Canes won its regional last year, the program’s first since 2016. Miami fell in the ACC Tournament semifinals but are proud to be in the final field of 64 teams.
“It’s a new season,” Canes head coach J.D. Arteaga said. “We’re excited. Anything can happen at these things. The message was have fun, enjoy this. We can talk about this weekend for a really long time.”
In the regular season, Florida beat Miami twice. Although it’s a whole new ballgame in the postseason, the rivalry never sleeps. But Gators catcher Karson Bowen pumped the brakes before a potential Gators-Canes matchup.
“We’re just going to take it game-by-game and not do anything different than what we’ve done in the last few weeks,” Bowen said.