Last weekend the Gators vanquished a common foe. Now they must get past an unfamiliar team to continue their journey.
The No. 10 UF baseball team (42-20), winners of the No. 8 national seed, will host Southern Miss (38-24) this weekend in a best-of-three Super Regional with a College World Series berth on the line. The Gators and Golden Eagles will open play Saturday at 3 p.m. Game 2 will be play Sunday at 7 p.m., with an if-necessary Game 3 scheduled for Monday at either 1 p.m. or 7 p.m.
UF and Southern Miss, winners of the Atlanta Regional, have never met in the postseason and will be meeting for only the second time ever.
It will be the Gators' first Super Regionals appearance since hosting one in 2005 en route to a trip to Omaha, home of the CWS. Considering that UF advanced out of a Regional containing Miami for the first time in 11 tries last weekend, the optimism is high in Gainesville.
"It's the first time I've been part of a team like this," sophomore second baseman Josh Adams said.
Junior center fielder Matt den Dekker added: "It's a special group, we're looking for big things to come."
If UF performs at the plate and on the mound like it did last weekend, it will have a good chance. The Golden Eagles finished fifth in Conference USA, although Southern Miss did defeat host Georgia Tech twice in three days in last weekend's Regional. Whenever its season ends, 12th-year head coach Corky Palmer has already announced he will be stepping down.
While the Gators have not yet announced Saturday's starter, senior lefty Stephen Locke is coming off one of his best career starts against Miami in a 8-2 victory. Locke (5-2, 4.02 ERA) went 7.1 innings on Saturday and gave up only two unearned runs.
The pitching staff likely felt even less pressure last weekend with UF's offensive explosion in two games against Miami. The Gators scored just eight runs against the Hurricanes in their first two meetings this season but matched that total in just Saturday's game and finished with 24 runs in two games.
As always, a big part of the attack was freshman first baseman Preston Tucker, who hit .692 and had two HR and six RBIs to earn Regional MVP honors. But it became a total team effort as UF racked up 22 hits in Sunday night's Regional-clinching victory, tying a school postseason record. Every Gators starter except Avery Barnes had multiple hits.
"When one guy's seeing the ball, he'll come back in the dugout and say it looks like a beach ball to them," Adams said. "Next thing you know, the next guy hits a double. Once this team starts hitting, it's kinda hart to stop us."
The early hero of last weekend's Regional could play a key role this weekend. Senior catcher Teddy Foster had a game-winning, two-run single to cap a 8-7 victory against Bethune-Cookman on Friday. He finished the weekend hitting .449 and added 3 RBIs. All of this from UF's No. 7 or No. 8 hitter.
"You have to get contributions up and down the lineup," UF coach Kevin O'Sullivan said. "It makes it more difficult to move on if you've got sure outs in the lineup."
