The rally caps were on, the crowd was on its feet and Teddy Foster was at the plate.
Down one run with one out in the bottom of the ninth, the Gators' third-string catcher delivered a bases-loaded single to give UF an 8-7 win in the opening round of the NCAA Baseball Tournament over Bethune-Cookman on Friday night.
"I don"t think I've ever had a walk-off hit probably since I was 8 years old," Foster said.
UF, the No. 8 seed national seed, got the most from its home-field advantage as the crowd welcomed Foster to home plate.
UF (40-20) now heads to the winners bracket, taking on Miami in Saturday's second game at 6:30 p.m. Bethune-Cookman (32-27) will face Jacksonville in a 1 p.m. elimination game Saturday.
The Gators were down 4-2 entering the bottom of the seventh inning, but they scored six runs in the final three innings to complete their huge comeback.
UF avoided making the wrong kind of history, as the team had never lost to Bethune-Cookman in 22 games entering Friday night.
UF's momentum had been killed twice in two innings when Bethune-Cookman scored runs in the top of the eighth and ninth innings.
But the Gators were resilient, and Foster's game-winning single ended the chance for what would have been an embarrassing home loss.
"Every time we scored a run, they countered with runs of their own," UF coach Kevin O'Sullivan said. "But the one thing we've been doing all year is fighting our way back into games, and that's exactly what happened."
UF's starting pitching was weak once again, and starter Anthony DeSclafani was pulled early in the third inning.
But reliever Patrick Keating, who opened the season as the Gators' ace but was relegated to the bullpen after a poor March and April, pitched three solid innings to get UF through the middle of the game.
"Keating was outstanding tonight," O'Sullivan said. "If our pitching can just give us a chance into the sixth or seventh inning "I like the way weÕre swinging the bats and scoring runs."
