The UF baseball team has won 40 of 48 games heading into Tuesday night's home game against USF. (Photo: Tim Casey/UAA)
Carter's Corner: Gators Softball and Baseball Teams Conjure Up Magical Possibilities
Tuesday, May 10, 2016 | Baseball, Scott Carter
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By: Scott Carter, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- In what has potential to be a historic finish for the UF softball and baseball teams, this past weekend served as a reminder of how good the Gators have been in 2016.
Both teams are currently ranked No. 1 in the country, a position each has held most of the season. The softball team clinched the SEC regular-season title by sweeping Arkansas to improve to 52-4. Meanwhile, in Knoxville the top-ranked Gators baseball team won two of three against the Volunteers to improve to 40-8, the fastest the program has reached 40 wins in school history.
Ninth-year head coach Kevin O'Sullivan, a tough-nosed grinder who rarely strays from the day-to-day details during the season, even took a moment to verbally pat his club on the back after Sunday's 9-3 win.
Gators softball coach Tim Walton has a club that has won 52 of 56 games heading into this week's SEC Tournament. (Photo: Jim Burgess/UAA)
"I've got to keep reminding myself we're 40-8, 16-7 in the league. We're right in the hunt for the SEC Championship. It's a heck of an accomplishment,'' he said. "Ten years ago, that was the benchmark of having a successful year, to get to 40 wins. Now it's not that way. I don't know what the number is, but it's certainly not 40. At the end of the year in the regular season, 40 wins is not easy to get to."
The Gators go for win No. 41 tonight at McKethan Stadium when USF visits. And on Friday when No. 7-ranked Vanderbilt comes to town for the final regular-season series at McKethan Stadium, the SEC Network and "Paul Finebaum Show" will broadcast live from Dizney Plaza in the left-field corner.
Finebaum will talk Florida football for sure, but you can bet he will chat also about Gators baseball and softball. The two clubs own a combined .885 win percentage, winning 92 of 104 games through Sunday night.
That's not all. The Florida softball and baseball teams are trying to do something no other school has done since the NCAA started a Division I national softball championship tournament 34 years ago: win national championships in both sports in the same season.
The Florida softball team has won back-to-back national titles and shows no signs of slowing down as it heads to the SEC Tournament to face Ole Miss on Thursday.
Like O'Sullivan on Sunday, UF softball coach Tim Walton took a moment to offer some perspective on what his team accomplished in the regular season.
"I took a picture of all my championship rings [Saturday] night and it just really started to soak in,'' he said. "Each ring, I look and I see the faces, some smiles, a couple tears, some losses in those rings. To be able to go 52-4 in the regular season, I see all those seniors and their smiling faces. It's a very special feeling to have our team just playing well and being very consistent."
The goal from now until the final pitch is the same for both teams. Walton wants to add another national championship ring to his collection and the Gators have a team built to win it all.
Same goes for the baseball team. The Gators have the pitching, defense and enough bats to win their first national title. They have come close the past few years, with four trips to the College World Series in the past six years.
The Gators finished third in Omaha a year ago as Virginia won the national title. The Cavaliers' final record: 44-24.
The Gators have a chance to match that win total this week. To accomplish the historic national championship sweep, both teams will have to play well and get enough of those crucial breaks that often determine the outcome in the two sports.
As of now, the possibility seems very real. So, as the postseason cranks up in softball and the regular season winds down in baseball, take a moment to appreciate what these teams are doing. The head coaches did over the weekend.
After all, it's special. With a chance to become historic.
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Both teams are currently ranked No. 1 in the country, a position each has held most of the season. The softball team clinched the SEC regular-season title by sweeping Arkansas to improve to 52-4. Meanwhile, in Knoxville the top-ranked Gators baseball team won two of three against the Volunteers to improve to 40-8, the fastest the program has reached 40 wins in school history.
