Florida's players celebrate on the field last June after winning the program's first national title. (Photo: Tim Casey/UAA Communications)
No. 1 Gators chase title repeat
Thursday, January 11, 2018 | Baseball
Florida opens the 2018 season atop the Perfect Game/Rawlings Preaseason Top 25.
Editor's note: The following excerpt is from a feature story by Jeff Dahn, senior staff writer for Perfect Game, to preview the 2018 season. The story was originally published on Jan. 11, 2018 on PerfectGame.org.
*****
The dream was finally realized the evening of June 27, 2017, when the Florida Gators fought-off the Louisiana State Tigers, 6-1, and claimed their school's first College World Series title and NCAA Division I National Championship.
There must have almost been a feeling of inevitability that accompanied the championship. For two straight years and five of the previous seven, the Gators had claimed a spot at the table in Omaha only to leave with the bitter taste of disappointment in their mouths. They had never won a national championship despite 10 CWS appearances since 1988.
But everyone knows there isn't anything in the world of college baseball that is inevitable, especially when the conversation turns to one specific program capturing a national championship.
Still, 2017 was the third straight year head coach Kevin O'Sullivan had taken the Gators to the Final 8, and last season's juniors and seniors knew the drill. Experience needs to count for something, doesn't it? Aren't the battle-tested almost always the calmest and most collected? That's the way the thinking goes, anyway.
"Going through it at the time, I don't know that I sensed that," O'Sullivan told Perfect Game during a recent telephone interview when asked if he could tell his team had the upper-hand based on what had taken place at TD Ameritrade Park in 2015 and 2016.
"But looking back on the success that we had last year, I would say, yes, it did. With (Alex) Faedo and (Mike) Rivera and (Dalton) Guthrie and a few of the other guys, the way they moved out there and the way they played … to play that clean I think had a lot to do with the experiences they had in the previous years."
The 2018 Florida Gators will begin the defense of their national championship on Feb. 16 when they host the first of three non-conference games with Sienna, and they'll do so as the No. 1-ranked team in the Perfect Game/Rawlings 2018 Preseason College Top 25.
*****
The dream was finally realized the evening of June 27, 2017, when the Florida Gators fought-off the Louisiana State Tigers, 6-1, and claimed their school's first College World Series title and NCAA Division I National Championship.
There must have almost been a feeling of inevitability that accompanied the championship. For two straight years and five of the previous seven, the Gators had claimed a spot at the table in Omaha only to leave with the bitter taste of disappointment in their mouths. They had never won a national championship despite 10 CWS appearances since 1988.
But everyone knows there isn't anything in the world of college baseball that is inevitable, especially when the conversation turns to one specific program capturing a national championship.
Still, 2017 was the third straight year head coach Kevin O'Sullivan had taken the Gators to the Final 8, and last season's juniors and seniors knew the drill. Experience needs to count for something, doesn't it? Aren't the battle-tested almost always the calmest and most collected? That's the way the thinking goes, anyway.
Feature on the PG @RawlingsSports Preseason No. 1 #CollegeBaseball team: No. 1 @GatorsBB chase title repeat - https://t.co/l01XJdqfdx pic.twitter.com/2S6vol39B7
— PG College Baseball (@PGCollegeBall) January 11, 2018
"Going through it at the time, I don't know that I sensed that," O'Sullivan told Perfect Game during a recent telephone interview when asked if he could tell his team had the upper-hand based on what had taken place at TD Ameritrade Park in 2015 and 2016.
"But looking back on the success that we had last year, I would say, yes, it did. With (Alex) Faedo and (Mike) Rivera and (Dalton) Guthrie and a few of the other guys, the way they moved out there and the way they played … to play that clean I think had a lot to do with the experiences they had in the previous years."
The 2018 Florida Gators will begin the defense of their national championship on Feb. 16 when they host the first of three non-conference games with Sienna, and they'll do so as the No. 1-ranked team in the Perfect Game/Rawlings 2018 Preseason College Top 25.
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