Conway, S.C. – Holding status as the first-ever SEC team to reach the NCAA Tournament after starting league play 2-10 or worse since 1992 expansion, No. 17 Florida opens its 17th-consecutive Regional (40th all-time) against East Carolina of the American Athletic Conference on Friday.
 
The first-round matchup at the NCAA Conway Regional is set for 12 p.m. ET on ESPN2 at Spring Brooks Stadium.
 
Carrying an SEC-high, six-series win streak into Regionals, the Gators (38-20, 15-15 SEC) are 4-0 all-time in the head-to-head series vs. the Pirates (33-25, 13-14 AAC), including a 1994 home series sweep and an 11-6 win at the 1989 Gainesville Regional. With this being the first meeting between the two teams in 31 years, Head Coach Kevin O’Sullivan will be making his coaching debut against the Pirates.

Florida brings a three-game win streak at NCAA Regionals into the program’s first-ever trip to Conway. As the Gators pursue a third-consecutive College World Series berth, they will first need to secure the program’s 16th Regional title.

Pitching Matchup

	Friday | 12 ET (ESPN2)
East Carolina	LHP Ethan Norby (7-5, 3.81 ERA)
Florida	RHP Liam Peterson (8-3, 4.10 ERA)
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POSTSEASON PROWESS
Florida’s 17-straight NCAA Tournament bids is tied for the most in the nation since 2008, as O’Sullivan has never missed the postseason in his 18 years at the helm. Fresh off back-to-back College World Series appearances (2023-24), the Gators are hoping to secure their 13th all-time Super-Regional berth, featuring their 11th in the last 16 NCAA Tournaments. Making their 40th Regional appearance, Florida is 137-88 (.609) in the NCAA Tournament and 90-52 at Regionals (.634) dating back to 1958.

HISTORY VS. THE REST OF THE REGIONAL FIELD

The Gators’ four previous meetings vs. ECU (4-0) are their most against any team in Conway, as Florida is 2-0 all-time vs. Fairfield and 1-1 against Coastal Carolina. The Orange & Blue swept Fairfield in a two-game, home midweek set in 2015 (8-7, 6-1) to compose their only prior history. The Gators most recently faced the Chanticleers in Omaha in 2016 (L, 2-1), with the only other meeting a 12-8 Florida victory in Gainesville on March 14, 1994.

CHECKING THE POLLS

Entering NCAA Regionals with the No. 17 RPI and No. 3 strength of schedule in the country, Florida sits at No. 17 in the D1Baseball Top 25. Ranked as highly as No. 12 nationally per Baseball America, the Gators sit at No. 14 via Perfect Game, No. 15 with the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and No. 18 at USA Today.

SCOUTING THE REGIONAL FIELD

Regional host-Coastal Carolina is led by Head Coach Kevin Schnall and boasts a record of 48-11 while dominating the Sun Belt with a conference mark of 26-4 for a regular-season conference title. The Chanticleers are coming off a Sun Belt conference tournament championship where they beat Southern Miss, a fellow Regional host. The Coastal Carolina offense finished the season with a team batting average of .288, but the stat that stands out the most is their 99 stolen bases on 125 attempts.

 

Not many teams in college baseball have as impressive of a starting rotation as Coastal Carolina. Redshirt sophomore Jacob Morrison touts a a 1.90 ERA, 0.87 WHIP, and a 11-0 record in 14 starts. Sophomore Cameron Flukey has a 3.16 ERA, 1.00 WHIP and 6-1 record in 14 starts. The final rotation piece is redshirt senior Riley Eikhoff, who wields a 3.19 ERA, 1.09 WHIP and a 6-2 record in 14 starts. As a team, Coastal Carolina has a 2.64 ERA in conference play with a 1.04 WHIP.

 

Led by Cliff Godwin, the Pirates enter with a 33-25 record, but more notably as American Athletic Conference Tournament Champions. The Pirates had a very impressive run as they beat South Florida twice, Charlotte and Tulane to win the championship. ECU finished the season 13-14 in conference play, and although their records don’t stand out, they won their conference championship and any team that does that is naturally hot and can be dangerous for anyone. As a team, the pirates have hit .275 both overall and in conference play. On the pitching side, ECU has worked to a 5.04 ERA and .245 BAA in 500 innings, backed by 524 strikeouts against 240 walks. The Pirates have fielded at a .975 clip this year.

 

The Fairfield Stags are coached by Bill Currier, coming off a 39-17 record and holding status as the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Tournament Champions after going 21-8 in the MAAC during the season. Collectively, the Stags have batted .295/.411/.467 with 67 homers while pitching to a 4.84 ERA and 397-to-220 K-to-BB ratio across 492 1/3 frames. Fairfield has posted a .976 fielding percentage.

 

A TALE OF TWO (SEC) SEASONS

In their 1-11 start to SEC action, the Gators pitched to a 9.63 ERA, .311 batting average against and 110-to-75 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 100 innings. They batted just .244/.333/.384 with 14 homers and 10 steals. In the final 18 SEC games, Florida pitchers more than cut their ERA in half at 3.76 while producing a .228 BAA and 197-to-71 K-to-BB ratio over 153 frames. The offense exploded in that time, slashing .296/.406/.500 with 26 homers and 32 stolen bases. The turnaround shifted the Gators from the NCAA Tournament bubble into the NCAA Regional host conversation, ultimately resulting in UF earning one of the top No. 2 seeds in the field.

 

NEXT MAN UP

Over the course of the regular season’s 14 weekends, Florida used 12 different starting pitching rotations. As for the offense, 14 Gators made multiple starts while also registering double-digit at bats this season. Of that contingent, 11 players came through with the game-winning RBI in Florida’s 37 victories. This is due to the fact that the Gators have seen 10 key players go down with an injury at some point during the season, with starting catcher Luke Heyman (four games), second baseman Cade Kurland (44 games) and center fielder Kyle Jones (54 games) all out for the season. Despite this, Florida delivered a .655 winning percentage highlighted by a .750 mark in the last 24 games (18-6). The Gators have simply refused to quit, boasting 15 come-from-behind victories on the season, nine of which have occurred in the last 24 games alone.

 

RED HOT REPTILES

After dropping its first-four SEC series and stumbling to a 1-11 record in league action, Florida went 14-4 in SEC play while winning six-straight series to save its season. During the 24-game turnaround (18-6) overall, Florida has outscored its opponents by a 185-to-101 tally, translating to a plus-3.5 runs per game differential. UF hitters slashed .290/.401/.501 while the pitching staff worked to a much-improved 3.61 ERA, .240 BAA and 254-to-94 K-to-BB ratio in 202 innings.

 

NATIONAL RANKINGS

Embarking on NCAA Tournament play, Florida is ranked inside the top-60 teams nationally across 12 statistical categories. Led by the fifth-most strikeouts per nine innings (11.6) in the country, the Gators also rank 18th in shutouts thrown (five), 24th in K-to-BB ratio (2.63), 31st in home runs (88), 33rd in slugging percentage (.503), 36th in hits allowed per nine (8.4), 37th in doubles (119), 46th in winning percentage (.655), 54th in runs (438), 55th in WHIP (1.42), 56th in ERA (4.84) and 59th in fielding percentage (.975).

 

ROTATION ROCKING

In the series win at No. 1 Texas, UF’s starting rotation pitched 13.0 shutout innings with a 2-0 record, 15-to-5 K-to-BB ratio and .133 BAA. One week later in the season’s final series vs. Alabama, left-handed pitcher Pierce Coppola struck out 10 against zero walks while right-hander Aidan King fired 6 1/3 innings with one earned run and eight strikeouts to collect his sixth win.

 

As a result, King earned a program-record fourth SEC weekly honor with a Freshman of the Week nod. The rookie phenom was nearly untouchable in his final four regular-season starts, allowing just two earned runs in 20 2/3 innings for a 0.87 ERA while fanning 22 batters. He has posted a 6-2 record, 2.76 ERA, .220 BAA and 72-to-21 K-to-BB ratio over 65 1/3 frames.

 

Meanwhile, ace righty Liam Peterson is 8-3 with a .239 BAA and 95-to-32 K-to-BB ratio, owning the fifth-best K/9 in the SEC (12.6). Peterson and King have each thrown four quality starts this year to combine for eight of the team’s nine.

 

As for Coppola, the lefty is 3-0 with a 1.86 ERA, 0.78 WHIP and astounding 17.7 K/9. He has fanned 80 batters against 20 walks in 47 1/3 career frames, with all 15 outings of his career being weekend starts.

 

CLEMENTIME

With the Gators going 18-6 over the last 24 contests, one of the primary drivers was the emergence of right-hander Jake Clemente in the closer role. Each of Clemente’s seven saves came in the last 24 games, during which he dominated to the tune of a team-low 0.78 ERA, .160 BAA and 36-to-10 K-to-BB ratio across 23 innings. All seven of Clemente’s saves have been more than one inning highlighted by six saves of six-plus outs and four of eight outs or more. That stretch of dominance netted Clemente All-SEC Second Team status and improved his season numbers significantly, as he carries a 3.38 ERA, .176 BAA and 74-to-25 K-to-BB ratio into the NCAA Tournament.

 

RESPECT THE LAW

Making the Freshman All-SEC Team alongside King, infielder Brendan Lawson has started 57 of 58 games while hitting .301/.408/.498. The Canadian rookie has totaled nine homers, one triple, 12 doubles, 43 runs and eight steals, sitting second on the team with 57 RBI. Lawson also ranks second on the roster with 14 multi-RBI contests and third with 21 multi-hit games.

 

BOBBY BASEBALL BITS

As the lone Gator to start all 58 games, infielder Bobby Boser leads Florida in at bats (224), hits (74), runs (67), total bases (134) and stolen bases (18). Looking to become the second 20-homer/20-steal player in team history (Brad Wilkerson, 1998), Boser’s 19 multi-RBI games equate to nearly one-third of UF’s contests while his five three-hit showings and 23 multi-hit games also lead the squad. The UF third baseman took home All-SEC Defensive Team honors while ranking top-10 in the SEC in runs (second), steals (fourth), RBI (sixth), hits (eighth), at bats (eighth) and total bases (eighth).

 

BEST CATCHER IN COLLEGE BASEBALL

As a semifinalist for the 2025 Buster Posey Award and a First Team All-SEC honoree, Heyman was arguably the nation’s top catcher prior to going down with an injury vs. Alabama on May 15. Heyman batted .301/.397/.578 across 49 games backed by 13 homers, one triple, seven doubles, 44 RBI and 37 runs scored. He slashed an even better .317/.403/.673 in 28 SEC contests. The UF backstop did this while providing near-perfect defense, finishing with a .998 fielding percentage and ranking third in the SEC with 11 runners caught stealing.

 

MURDERERS’ ROW

Even with Heyman (.301/.397/.578/.975) sidelined with injury, Florida still touts one of the fiercest lineups in the nation with four qualified hitters batting at least .300 with an OPS above .900: infielder Colby Shelton (.377/.458/.606/1.064), Boser (.330/.433/.598/1.031), catcher/designated hitter Brody Donay (.315/.432/.668/1.100) and Lawson (.301/.408/.498/.906). Each of Shelton, Boser and Donay wield a 1.000-plus OPS while slugging at least .590.

 

That contingent is joined by a rising star in sophomore outfielder Hayden Yost, who collected SEC Player of the Week honors back on May 5. In the month of May, Yost slashed .300/.440/.575 for a 1.015 OPS over 12 games. He swatted three homers and two doubles while pacing Florida with 14 RBI, 11 runs and eight walks in that span.

 

STEALING THE SHOW

The Gators have stolen 87 bases in 104 attempts (83.7%) this season, equating to 1.5 steals per game after averaging 0.7 steals per game last year. After 58 contests, the Gators have more than doubled their 2024 steals total (43). Boser paces the team with 18 steals in 21 attempts, which is tied for fourth in the SEC.

 

RELENTLESS REPTILES

By erasing its largest deficit in over two years (five runs) to win game one against Alabama on May 15, Florida has now secured 15 come-from-behind victories in 2025. Last season, the Gators delivered 21 wins in comeback fashion, featuring 12 of the team’s 13 SEC wins. Going back two seasons, 22 of the 2023 Gators’ program-record 54 victories came via comebacks.

ON DECK

With a win on Friday, Florida advances to the winner’s bracket to take on the winner of Coastal Carolina vs. Fairfield on Saturday, May 31 at 6 p.m. With a loss, the Gators drop into the loser’s bracket and play the loser of Chanticleers-Stags on Saturday at 12 p.m.

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