{"id":292102,"date":"2026-06-01T19:11:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T19:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/292102\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T19:11:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T19:11:08","slug":"florida-baseball-knows-success-in-winner-take-all-regionals-wruf-98-1-fm-850-am","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/292102\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Baseball Knows Success in Winner-Take-All Regionals \u2013 WRUF 98.1 FM | 850 AM"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida baseball last swept an NCAA Regional in 2016, and after allowing an onslaught of runs in a 16-11 loss to Troy on Sunday<\/a> the trend has continued. But there might be a method to the Gators\u2019 madness when they return to battle Troy on Monday in the NCAA Gainesville Regional finale.<\/p>\n

Florida thrives on pressure, finding itself in its sixth winner-take-all situation since sweeping the 2016 Gainesville Regional. In the team\u2019s five previous Monday appearances, they\u2019ve advanced to the Super Regional four times.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Gators started their 2017 College World Series title run with a chance to sweep their regional, but they fell 6-2 to Bethune-Cookman on June 4, 2017 before returning with vengeance on Monday in a decisive 6-1 victory to extend their season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did this in 2017 and had to come back on Monday and play,\u201d coach Kevin O\u2019Sullivan said. \u201cWe got a chance to win a regional, bottom line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greatest Gators Moments Bracket<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the greatest moment in Gators history? You decide.<\/p>\n

Closes Thu. June 5 \u2022 1:59 PM<\/p>\n

Matchup 1<\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

2006 Football National Championship<\/p>\n

vs.<\/p>\n

6<\/p>\n

Tim Tebow Heisman (2007)<\/p>\n

\"Loading\u00a0Loading …<\/p>\n

Matchup 2<\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

2017 College World Series Title<\/p>\n

vs.<\/p>\n

7<\/p>\n

Steve Spurrier Heisman (1966)<\/p>\n

\"Loading\u00a0Loading …<\/p>\n

If Florida wants to continue its Monday dominance, the pitching staff needs improvement after allowing 33 runs through its first three games in the regional.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Starters Aidan King and Liam Peterson forced coach O\u2019Sullivan to turn to his bullpen quicker than anticipated. King made it through three innings during Florida\u2019s 22-10 win over Miami on Saturday<\/a>, allowing eight hits and six runs before Luke McNeille took over.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Liam Peterson didn\u2019t find momentum on the mound either, allowing 10 hits and nine runs when Troy took down Florida 16-11 Sunday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t pitched well this regional,\u201d O\u2019Sullivan said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to have to pitch better if we want to move on.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Gators bullpen hasn\u2019t shined either. After Friday\u2019s starter Russell Sandefer pitched 5 and 2\/3 shutout innings against Rider, three bullpen-arms allowed six runs in the 8th inning, evaporating Florida\u2019s 4-0 lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Gators still have plenty of arms to turn to. Cooper Walls hasn\u2019t seen the mound this postseason, but isn\u2019t strong when handed the ball mid-game. In Wall\u2019s seven bullpen appearances, the pitcher posted a 22.24 ERA despite holding a 6.87 season ERA.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to have to be very strategic in how we use our arms because we\u2019re probably going to have to use quite a few,\u201d O\u2019Sullivan said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Two-way player Caden McDonald is also available with his regional pitch count sitting at 26. McDonald maintains a 3.77 season ERA through 43 innings pitched.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen that Troy can hit ,\u201d McDonald said. \u201cWe\u2019ve just got to be confident in our stuff and really execute with two strikes.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Closer Joshua Whritenour\u2019s arm can help Florida on Monday after the righty faced seven batters against Rider, allowing three runs while striking out two.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Florida\u2019s offense got the pitching staff out of a jam on Friday and Saturday with a combined 30 runs, but its 11 runs on Sunday, including a grand slam by Cade Kurland, didn\u2019t suffice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As Florida\u2019s offense continues stepping up at plate, notching 44 hits and setting an NCAA tournament program record with seven homers against Miami, the pitching staff needs to follow suit.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou win, you move on,\u201d O\u2019Sullivan said. \u201c[If] you don\u2019t [win], your season\u2019s over.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Category: Feature Sports News<\/a>, Gators Baseball<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida baseball last swept an NCAA Regional in 2016, and after allowing an onslaught of runs in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190388,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-292102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}