Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — How does a team barely above .500 become one of the best stories of the NCAA Tournament? The easy answer is to find the perfect quote from the great philosopher Yogi Berra to make it make sense.

Hey, found one.

"In baseball, you don't know nothing," Berra once said. Or at least Berra is said to have once said it.

As for the Gators, they are headed to the Clemson (S.C.) Super Regional to face the host Tigers because they found their clutch gene at the perfect time, winning three games in less than 24 hours to claim the Stillwater (Okla.) Regional title and keep their season alive.

"Every guy stepped up. Whenever there was a crucial moment, someone found a way to get it done,'' said shortstop Colby Shelton. "That's what it takes this time of year."

Shelton did his part, hitting home runs in Florida's first two must-win games in Stillwater, Sunday afternoon's 17-11 win over Nebraska and Sunday night's 5-2 victory over Oklahoma State, setting up Monday's winner-take-all championship.

Shelton was far from alone.

In Florida's first win over the host Cowboys, reliever Brandon Neely entered the game at a dicey moment and pitched spectacularly, surrendering only one hit over 5 2/3 scoreless innings. He struck out a career-high 11. And in Monday's rematch, young pitchers Jake Clemente, Frank Menendez and Fisher Jameson combined for a five-hitter in Florida's 4-2 victory. Meanwhile, regional Most Outstanding Player Ashton Wilson put the Gators ahead with a two-run single in the third inning, outfielder Michael Robertson chipped in with an RBI single, and outfielder Tyler Shelnut added an insurance run in the sixth inning with a towering home run over the left-field wall.

"We're playing with nothing to lose,'' Neely said.

When it was over, their drained manager flashed his biggest smile of the season as the team gathered in the outfield at O'Brate Stadium to take a team photo. Kevin O'Sullivan used every tactic in his uniform's back pocket to get wins. Some of the moves worked. Others backfired because of inexperience and lack of execution.

Finally, the Gators resembled the team many expected when they opened the season ranked second in the country, coming off a trip to the College World Series championship a season ago.

"Let's face it, it has been an up and down year for us,'' O'Sullivan said. "It's been frustrating, but baseball is a different sport than football and basketball. We play a ton of games.

"These guys just kept fighting."

The Gators' never-say-die mentality was perhaps best exhibited by Neely in Stillwater. He entered Sunday night's win over the Cowboys with UF down, 2-1, and the bases loaded in the bottom of the fourth. He struck out Carson Benge for the second out and then got Nolan Schubart to hit a line drive to center field that Robertson raced under to make a tumbling catch. Inning over. The Gators exploded for four runs in the top of the sixth, and Neely held the lead over his 104-pitch outing.

"The best outing of the year, quite honestly," O'Sullivan said. "It wasn't ideal but it felt like that was probably the point of the game that if we were going to stay in this thing, we would have to go to him. We hoped to get to the sixth or seventh before we used him, but he came in and got himself out of the situation in the fourth. He pitched unbelievably well."

A junior right-hander, Neely opened the season as the closer after recording 13 saves a season ago. With the starting rotation struggling, O'Sullivan used Neely to start six games during the middle of the season before moving him back to the bullpen when left-hander Pierce Coppola began taking regular turns.

Neely took the mound, knowing the season was on the line and that it was his job to keep it alive.

"It was a grind for sure, being able to go out there and try to finish the game,'' Neely said. "I had no thought in the back of my mind that Sully was going to take the ball from me. I was going out there to finish it." With the veteran pitchers on empty for Monday's championship game, O'Sullivan called redshirt freshman right-hander Jake Clemente in the morning to tell him he would start. Clemente said his most significant start before the phone rang had been a state semifinal game in high school. The call came two days after Clemente struggled in 1/3 inning in Florida's 7-1 loss to Oklahoma State on Saturday, throwing only five strikes in 19 pitches.

His mission was as clear as Ginnie Springs.

"I knew I had to do one thing, and that was attack the zone,'' Clemente said. "When I'm at my best, I just attack the zone. If they hit it, they hit it. I can live with that, but I can't live with throwing 14 balls in 19 pitches."

Clemente allowed one run in 3 1/3 innings, followed by Menendez (one run in 2 1/3 innings and a couple of escapes from jams) and Jameson (3 1/3 perfect innings, four strikeouts). When Jameson struck out Tyler Wulfert for the final out, the Gators raced toward the mound to celebrate, only two more wins for a return trip to Omaha.
 

"I know the regular season didn't go the way everyone wanted, but they put us in [the tournament], and we just came here and showed that we're meant to be here,'' Clemente said.
 
The Gators tasted victory three times in less than 24 hours to advance and show why they opened the season ranked so high.

"They did a heck of a job coming through the long road back,'' Cowboys coach Josh Holliday said. "Tough pill to swallow."

Not for O'Sullivan and his team. They gulped their share of harsh pills before they ever arrived in Stillwater.

Instead, the Gators washed down a regional championship when few gave them a chance.

"Let's be honest, we put ourselves in that position to have some scrutiny, to be criticized," O'Sullivan said. "But I did feel like we belonged. I did trust our team and we got rewarded for playing a really difficult schedule. You don't predict that you are going to come into Stillwater and win a regional, but when you look back at it, we were battled tested, and we were prepared as well as we could be to play in an environment like this."