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College World Series title puts Florida Gators in elite company

 
Florida ace and Tampa native Alex Faedo (21) lets loose with his teammates after they win the Gators’ first baseball national title.
Florida ace and Tampa native Alex Faedo (21) lets loose with his teammates after they win the Gators’ first baseball national title.
Published June 29, 2017

The Florida Gators put themselves in rare company with Tuesday night's College World Series national championship victory.

Florida is just the fourth program in Division I to win a national title in the three major men's sports — football (Associated Press), basketball and baseball. The others: Michigan, Ohio State and UCLA. Not a bad list.

Another noteworthy stat: The Gators are the only program to win a title in all three in the past 50 years.

Having success in one sport doesn't necessarily translate to the others. Still …

"I don't think it hurts," basketball coach Mike White said during this week's SEC teleconference, before the baseball team's win. "I think that there is a culture that's been created here by (former athletic director) Jeremy Foley and his staff for a long time. Now it's obviously been taken over by Scott Stricklin and his current administrative staff. … They do a tremendous job. The resources, the facilities, the culture, the standard of excellence here is something we talk about."

It would have been hard to forecast a baseball championship of any kind for Florida after it got swept in its SEC opening series at Auburn back in March.

But a month later, the Gators started a run to sharing the SEC regular-season title with LSU and, ultimately, their national championship-clinching 6-1 win Tuesday over the Tigers in Omaha, Neb.

"I think a lot of people counted us out," UF pitcher Jackson Kowar said.

Florida lost three straight to start conference play for the first time since 2009. The Gators took two of three from LSU after the Auburn series but still were 5-6 in the SEC after losing the second game of a series against a Tennessee team that finished second to last in the league.

The Gators (52-19) then won 32 of their final 40 games and delivered the school its first national title in baseball.

"I don't know if there was a defining moment," coach Kevin O'Sullivan said. "But I did sense that there was a sense of togetherness in the locker room and knowing we'll never give up."

O'Sullivan tinkered with the lineup to shake things up. The Gators had six different leadoff hitters, Jonathan India batted in all but the No. 9 hole, and Deacon Liput and Mike Rivera batted in seven different spots.

UF ranked 224th out of 300 teams with a .259 batting average. Still, the Gators had a knack for getting the timely hit, drawing walks and forcing play when they got on base.

"What happens when we have pitching like we do, there's never like a really long stretch of losses," O'Sullivan said. "You'll lose a game or two but then you get back on the winning side of things because your pitching is what it is. And we've always played good defense."

No doubt, this team will be remembered for its pitching and defense.

Former Alonso High standout Alex Faedo, named the most outstanding player of the CWS, led the nation with 157 strikeouts, including 22 in two wins over TCU in Omaha. He was the only returning weekend starter this season, but Brady Singer and Kowar helped form one of the nation's top rotations.

Michael Byrne, a midweek starter to open the season, took hold of the closer's job and finished with a nation-leading and school-record 19 saves. UF played 25 one-run games and, largely because of Byrne's work, won a nation-best 19.

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"That guy has been the hero this year for us," Kowar said. "Having that guy at the end of the 'pen is why we have so much confidence and are able to win so many one-run games. Winning got contagious for us."

Freshmen Tyler Dyson, Garrett Milchin, Kirby McMullen and Nate Brown provided bullpen help for a team that returned only 40 percent of its innings from 2016. Dyson was at his best late in the season, throwing five strong innings against Wake Forest in the super regions and, in only his second start, six innings of three-hit ball in the national title-clinching win over LSU.

The Gators finished eighth with a .981 fielding percentage and played the last 50 innings at the CWS without an error.

"When you go five games without making an error and you don't beat yourself, it just makes it more difficult on the other team that you're not giving them more outs," O'Sullivan said.

Faedo was the Gators' only player taken in the first round of this year's draft, but they also stand to lose a couple of sixth-round picks in shortstop Dalton Guthrie and catcher Rivera and a seventh-round pick in catcher Mark Kolozsvary.

With Singer and Kowar coming back and Dyson projected to be a weekend starter, the Gators will be strong on the mound again.

"I think Florida baseball is in great shape right now," O'Sullivan said.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.