State of Florida has postseason to forget in college baseball, as ‘Big 3’ fail to advance past regionals
When you think of collegiate athletics in the Sunshine State, specifically with regard to the “Big 3” of Florida, Florida State, and Miami, you likely think of football first.
And for good reason, as all three of the power players in Florida have had dominant runs at one time or another in the sport’s history.
What may shock the layman, though, is that all three of those schools also have strong baseball programs as well.
Both Miami and Florida have national championships to their name, with the Hurricanes winning four in their program history, and while Florida State has never won the College World Series, they rank second in win percentage in college baseball and their old coach, Mike Martin, was the first and only coach to ever win 2,000 games.
IS THIS COLLEGE BASEBALL TANK SHOT REALLY THAT IMPRESSIVE?
Any way you slice it, the state of Florida has a rich tradition of college baseball, but this past week has been one to forget for the Big 3.
With the Hurricanes, Seminoles and Gators all failing to advance past regionals for the first time since 2022, the Sunshine State’s lack of representation in both the super regionals and College World Series will feel uncanny.
For the Hurricanes, it was a slightly less embarrassing miss than their other two rivals, considering they were the only ones to not host a regional.
Despite that, getting shelled by both Troy and arch-rival Florida has to be a bitter pill to swallow for such a proud program.
The Seminoles and Gators, however, have no excuses.
Both were national seeds heading into postseason play, with Florida in particular looking like one of the hottest offensive teams in the country.
Florida had two chances to advance to the super regionals against the aforementioned Troy Trojans, but were utterly humiliated both times on their home turf by a team with a fifth of the talent they possess.
The Noles went out in similarly brutal fashion, being taken out by St. John’s on the hallowed ground of Mike Martin Field at Dick Howser Stadium, though their games were actually a bit closer than their two neighbors to the south.
With UCF also failing to make it past regionals, the entire state of Florida won’t be participating in postseason play moving forward.
Who’s to say where all these programs go from here?
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The Gators, specifically, have a question of whether they retain coach Kevin O’Sullivan.
The man affectionately referred to as Sully has the seniority over Miami’s J.D. Arteaga and FSU’s Link Jarrett, as well as a national championship to his name, but diminishing returns in the 2020s may end up dooming him to an unceremonious exit sooner rather than later.
At least the Hurricanes and Gators have football and basketball, respectively, to look forward to, but I am having an increasingly tough time finding any sport for Seminoles fans to find joy in.
Regardless, it will be a long offseason filled with uncomfortable questions for all three of these programs.
المصدر: Fox News — Latest
