The Gators rallied from a pair of deficits to defeat South Carolina on Friday night in Game 1 of an NCAA Super Regional.
WHAT HAPPENED: The Gators hit three home runs to overcome a two-run deficit in the first inning for a 5-4 victory over South Carolina in Game 1 of the best-of-three NCAA Super Regional. Josh Rivera, Tyler Shelnut and BT Riopelle went deep for the Gators on Friday night as they won their fourth consecutive NCAA Tournament game since dropping into the losers’ bracket of the Gainesville Regional with a loss to Texas Tech on Saturday. The game at Condron Ballpark was delayed by 2 hours, 37 minutes due to weather. Shelnut added an RBI single for insurance in the eighth, putting the Gators up 5-3, which proved crucial when Will McGillis hit a solo homer in the top of the ninth. McGillis went 3-for-5 with two home runs and three RBI.
PLAY OF THE GAME: Seven of the first 11 South Carolina batters to face Florida starter Brandon Sproat got a hit, including leadoff hitter McGillis, who hit a towering home run to left field for the game’s first run. McGillis added an RBI single in the second inning to put the Gamecocks up 3-2. After Braylen Wimmer’s double put runners on second and third with one out, the Gators opted to intentionally walk Ethan Petry to load the bases. That brought up Gamecocks cleanup hitter Cole Messina, who hit a come-backer to the mound that Sproat threw home to start a 1-2-3 double play to end the inning.
STAGGERING STAT: Riopelle has seven hits in nine postseason games: four in the Southeastern Conference Tournament, two in the Gainesville Regional, and one in Friday night’s NCAA Super Regional Game 1 against South Carolina. Six of Riopelle’s hits are home runs, including two in Monday’s regional-clinching win over Texas Tech.
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: In the final home start of his career, Sproat needed 26 pitches to escape the first inning down 2-0. He gave up another run in the third, but an inning-ending double play turned around Sproat’s night. He retired seven consecutive batters until his throwing error in the fifth allowed Brimmer to reach. Still, Sproat got out of the inning unharmed to go six innings. He allowed nine hits, three runs, walked two and struck out seven in his 106-pitch outing, highlighted by a 100-mph fastball to strike out Gavin Casas in the third inning. Relievers Cade Fisher (two scoreless innings) and Brandon Neely (one run in ninth) finished off the Gamecocks.
KEY MOMENT: Riopelle nearly tied the game in the fourth inning when he flew deep to center field for the second out. He smiled as he returned to the dugout, knowing he just missed his third homer in two games. He didn’t miss in the sixth, drilling an 0-1 pitch from Gamecocks reliever Will Sanders for a solo homer and 4-3 UF lead.
BY THE NUMBERS: 8,439 — Announced crowd at Condron Ballpark on Friday night, the largest on-campus crowd in state college baseball history; 17 — Home runs for Rivera this season, third on the team behind Jac Caglianone (31) and Wyatt Langford (18).
FROM HEAD COACH KEVIN O’SULLIVAN
Opening statement…
“Credit their offense, they came out and swung the bats really good, really aggressive. Obviously, [Will] McGillis led off the game with a home run and we had another one we lost the ball in the twilight there. Gave up another one in the third, but then Brandon [Sproat] turned it around and put up four zeros in a row. Which is huge. Looking back at the game, probably the biggest at-bat of game other than [Tyler] Shelnut’s single driving in the fifth run was Josh [Rivera] answering back with a two-run homer to get us right back into it. Because usually in games like this, the team that scores first gets momentum and it can kind of get away from you a little bit in this environment. We battled. South Carolina played great and just came down to one run. It’s really that simple.”
On Sproat’s adjustments on the mound…
“That’s happened a few times this year where they’ve kind of cheated the fastball, but I think that’s made Brandon better where he’s got the curveball and the change-up he can go to behind in the count and he was able to do that against a really good lineup. That just shows the maturity of where he’s at. He gave up three in the first two and put up four zeros. I was going to take him out in the fifth, he was at 90 pitches, he had to really make a lot of leverage pitches. It was an emotional night for him. He begged to go back out there in the sixth and obviously he put up another zero. Cade Fisher was really good and I thought [Brandon] Neely, his stuff was as good as its been all year long. It was just a really good college baseball game on both sides.”
On Riopelle and the team’s postseason…
“Yeah, I mean, he’s older, he’s mature. The coaches love him. The players love him. The fans love him. You can hear when he went to do the postgame interview, like the fans. Our fans were outstanding, too. I can’t express enough how important they are and the fact that they showed up and we had a two-and-a-half-hour rain delay and it was electric. Our players came out and they were not flat. Sometimes you can come out a little flat, regardless, I know this is an important series obviously. But, we’re used to that. Rain delays are a part of this time of year. But, BT can go through stretches where he swings and misses some. But, he does have a knack to come up with big at-bats at the right times. Certainly, he did that tonight and he did it last Monday too.”
NOTABLES
* Friday night’s official attendance of 8,439 marked a new program record and the largest on-campus crowd ever for a collegiate baseball game in Florida.
* Friday’s Super Regional opener was delayed by two hours and 37 minutes due to weather.
* The Gators are one win away from their 13th College World Series appearance including the program’s eighth in 16 seasons under Head Coach Kevin O’Sullivan.
* UF posted its 20th come-from-behind win of the season.
* Florida is now 124-83 all-time in the NCAA Tournament.
* Florida is 13-6 all-time in the Super Regional round.
* The Gators have never lost a Super after winning game one.
* UF is hosting its ninth NCAA Super Regional since 2008, which leads the nation.
* Rivera hit his 17th home run of the season in the bottom of the first, after homering in the first inning of Florida’s first game of the NCAA Gainesville Regional last weekend as well.
* Rivera has now homered in each of Florida’s postseason series in 2023, having also gone yard at the SEC Tournament in Hoover, Ala.
* Shelnut blasted his seventh home run of the season to tie the game in the fifth inning.
* He is the seventh different Gator to homer this postseason.
* Riopelle launched his 16th home run of the season to give Florida a 4-3 lead in the sixth inning.
* The home run marked Riopelle’s seventh-career postseason homer including his sixth of the 2023 postseason.
* Sproat completed at least five innings for the 22nd time in his last 23 starts to earn his eighth victory.
* Florida has hit 129 home runs this season, which ranks second in a single season in program history behind the 1998 team (132).
* Florida has struck out 654 batters in 550 innings – translating to 10.7 per nine innings, which would mark a new program record.
* The Gators have 622 hits through 64 games (9.7 hits/game).
* The Gators have scored in 44.1% of batted innings (230 of 521).
* Florida is 52-54 all-time against South Carolina including 30-16 in Gainesville.
* The Gators are 30-22 vs. the Gamecocks under O’Sullivan including 17-5 at home.
* UF is 1-3 vs. SC in the NCAA Tournament, although this is the first meeting between the two teams in the Regional or Super Regional rounds.
UP NEXT: The Gators host South Carolina in Game 2 of the NCAA Super Regional on Saturday at 3 p.m. If the Gators win, they advance to the College World Series for the first time since 2018. If they lose, a winner-take-all Game 3 will be played on Sunday at Condron Family Ballpark.
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