Florida Gators

HOOVER, Ala.—Florida advanced to the Southeastern Conference Tournament final with a 1-0 win over LSU on Saturday evening. Sunday's final against Texas A&M will start at 3 p.m. ET on ESPN2.

With the win, Florida advances to the SEC Tournament championship game for the third straight year. UF won the title last year with a 2-1 win over LSU.
 
Gators starting pitcher Scott Moss, making his fifth start of the season and first against an SEC opponent, was masterful. He pitch six scoreless innings, allowing just three hits and no runs with a career-high seven strikeouts.
 
LSU starter Caleb Gilbert matched Moss for five innings until Florida finally broke through in the bottom of the sixth. Dalton Guthrie led off with an infield single and then moved to second on Mike Rivera's groundout. Jonathan India stepped to the plate with two outs and hit a ball just inside the foul line in left field for a RBI double to give the Gators a 1-0 lead.
 
Dane Dunning pitched two scoreless innings in relief for the Gators and Shaun Anderson pitched a scoreless ninth for his 12th save of the season.
 
India finished 2-for-2 on the night with a walk and the only RBI. Along with Guthrie, Rivera and Nelson Maldonado each had singles in the game.

Postgame Quotes

Head Coach Kevin O'Sullivan
Opening Statement … 
"Unbelievable game. It was exciting. We have played LSU five times in a week-and-a-half. The games have been exciting and really good. I'm really impressed with LSU. They have gotten so much better through the course of the year. Their offense is really clicking right now. Coming into today they have won the last 14 of 15 (games). To be able to shut them out is hard to do in any year, especially this year. They are competitive. Our pitching was outstanding. I'm really happy for Scott Moss. It has been a long road for him. He had that surgery his freshman year. The timing of it was off. It was in March of his freshman year. You fast forward 12 months, and we made a decision as a staff to take it slow and not rush him back last year. For him to have this opportunity and take advantage of it like he did was awesome. It was great for Kirby (Snead) to get an important out there and then Shaun (Anderson) was really good and had to make some big pitches in the middle of the order. I anticipate seeing LSU down the road at some point. Give them a lot of credit. We're excited to play one more day. I have no idea about pitching yet, so we'll figure it out tonight."
 
On multiple SEC teams competing for national seeds… 
"It's an interesting question. I think the SEC is really top-heavy this year. I don't know how the committee is going to do it. They have a really tough decision to make. There are a lot of teams deserving of a national seed in our league. Historically, one league doesn't get five national seeds. It might be different this year. I don't know if I have seen pitching this deep and this many arms. We're playing the fourth game and LSU is running on a freshman that's (throwing) 90-94 (MPH) today, who is locating. There is a lot of depth in this league. This is my ninth year, and I can honestly say this is the best it has been for the top eight or nine teams. It's been very competitive."
 
On Scott Moss' performance… 
"I think, for him, it has been a long road. This is an outing he will never forget. It has been very difficult for him. There are a lot of lonely days in that training room. Certainly, he has never been forgotten, but sometime there have been some long days. For him to have this opportunity, and to do what he did against LSU, it's a memory he will never forget. This is a huge confidence boost for him. Going into the day, it was a big outing for him for a lot of reasons — from a team perspective, for his role moving forward, for the draft, and let's be honest, it was a big day for him. I'm proud of him. He has been a great teammate. He was on a 70 pitch count. He took advantage of his pitch count and got him through six innings."
 
3B Jonathan India
On Scott Moss' performance… 
"He was throwing first-pitch strikes. He competed today. It's the best I've seen him all season. I was a joy to watch and to play behind him all day."
 
LHP Scott Moss
On his performance… 
"Just attack them with first-pitch strikes. I did that the whole day. It was a good all-around day for me. I felt like I could go all nine. My arm has never been healthier. Every pitch I was throwing was honestly better than my high school stuff. I think I have progressed enough to start any game and continue all nine innings."

Postgame Notes

• The Gators will play for the SEC Tournament title for the third year in a row. Last year, the Gators beat LSU 2-1 in the Final to claim the tournament title. In 2014, LSU beat UF 2-0 in the final.
• Florida will make its 14th appearance in the SEC Tournament championship game, second-most all-time to LSU's 17. It is Florida's fourth under head coach Kevin O'Sullivan.
• This is the fifth time a school has made it to at least three straight SEC Tournament title games [LSU (1990-95 and 2008-10), Vanderbilt (2011-13) and Alabama (1995-97)].
• Florida has won seven straight elimination games in the SEC Tournament dating back to last year's tournament.
• Florida struck out 11 LSU batters. The Tigers totaled 10 strikeouts only three times this year, two against the Gators (also May 25, 12 Ks).
• This was Florida's seventh shutout in the SEC Tournament all-time, and its first since A.J. Puk blanked Arkansas 10-0 in a 7-inning game on May 22, 2015. It was Florida's first 9-inning shutout in the SEC Tournament since a 5-0 win over Vanderbilt on May 29, 2011.
• Florida starting pitcher Scott Moss set career highs with 6.0 innings pitched, seven strikeouts and 71 pitches.
• Since the third inning vs. Alabama on Thursday, Florida's pitching staff has allowed three runs on 15 hits and four walks with 20 strikeouts in its last 23 innings (1.17 ERA).
• There have been a total of 14 runs scored in the last four SEC Tournament meetings between Florida and LSU: 2-0 LSU on 5/25/14, 2-1 Florida on 5/23/15, 5-3 LSU (14 innings) on 5/25/16 and 1-0 Florida today.

Up Next

Florida will face Texas A&M on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on ESPN2. Jeff Cardozo and Mick Hubert will have the call on the Gator IMG Sports Network for all SEC Tournament games.

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