Despite an embarrassing loss in the Southeastern Conference Championship game on Saturday, the Gators kept a couple impressive streaks alive the next day.
On Sunday night, No. 7 Florida (46-11) earned the No. 5 national seed for the NCAA Tournament to make it five straight years as a top-five seed and 10 straight years as a NCAA Regional host.
UF struggled down the stretch of the regular season, losing five of their last seven. But wins against LSU and Tennessee propelled Florida into the championship game of the SEC Tournament against Alabama. And even being run ruled by the Tide wasn’t enough to keep the Gators out of a primetime spot in the tournament.
When their seed was announced at 10 Sunday night, Lauren Haeger and the rest of her team cheered and applauded. The three-time SEC Freshman of the Week was so excited she and fellow freshman Sami Fagan jumped up and chest-bumped after finding out their fate.
“I wasn’t expecting five seed,” Haeger said. “We all were ready to have a lower seed than that and I’m really happy that it went in our favor. I’m excited; I’m ready to get this show going.”
The Gainesville Regional features an all-Sunshine State lineup with Florida Gulf Coast (37-22), Central Florida (39-17) and South Florida (45-11). Florida has played each of these schools at least once earlier this season with a combined 2-2 record.
Cheyenne Coyle said she’s more comfortable facing familiar foes.
“Playing Florida teams in our regional, of course, they are really coming hard this year,” Coyle said. “It’s nice playing teams we’ve already played because we see what they have ... so I think I’d rather play a team we’ve already played before rather than a random team.”
Florida’s journey to make a fifth straight Women’s College World Series begins Friday at 6 p.m. against FGCU, who the Gators defeated 5-0 on Feb. 12. In the regional round of the tournament, Florida is 16-4 under Walton, including a 12-2 record the past three seasons.
Walton said his team being awarded such a high seed in the tournament was a testament to its body of work throughout the regular season. Although the Gators hit a rough patch down the homestretch, they were able to convince the NCAA with nine top-25 victories and their fifth straight season with at least 20 wins against SEC opponents.
“I can’t wait,” Haeger said. “It’s like something you see all the time and you’re finally here and what you did all season is finally paying off. It’s going to be a fight. It’s going to see who has the most fight and heart in the end.”
Alabama fans and players celebrate defeating Florida 10-1 in the SEC Tournament final Saturday. The Crimson Tide’s run-rule victory was their third win against the Gators in seven days.
