GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Returning to the D1Baseball top-25 rankings for the first time in eight weeks, No. 23 Florida wraps up the regular season at home with its first series against No. 18 Alabama since 2023.
 
The three-game set begins Thursday, May 15 at 6:30 p.m. on SEC Network+, which will carry each contest of the series. Game two is scheduled for Friday at 6:30 p.m. followed by Saturday afternoon’s finale at 4 p.m.
 

Entering with a five-series winning streak and 15-4 record (12-3 SEC) across their last 19 games overall, the Gators (35-18, 13-14 SEC) have won 23 of their previous 26 contests against the Crimson Tide (39-13, 15-12 SEC) including 16 of 18. That dominant stretch has powered the Orange & Blue to a 70-59 all-time series lead, highlighted by a 35-19 mark in Gainesville.
 
Head Coach Kevin O’Sullivan is going for his 500th-career home victory this weekend (499-151, .768), as he is 29-7 overall and 13-2 at home against the Tide in his 18-year tenure as UF skipper.

Pitching Matchups

SERIES PROMOS
Thursday: 1,000 Albert garden gnomes for all fans, 100 hot dog vouchers for UF students
Friday: Closet Cleanout (giveaways from this season and beyond)
Sunday: 1,000 Gators script rope hats for all fans
 

⚠️ UF-BAMA SERIES GIVEAWAYS! ⚠️

Game 1: 1,000 Albert garden gnomes

Game 2: Closet Cleanout

Game 3: 1,000 Gators script rope hats#GoGators pic.twitter.com/dER6DXkzkP

— Florida Gators Baseball (@GatorsBB) May 13, 2025

FOOD TRUCKS
There will be two food trucks located in the Dizney Grove area beyond the outfield wall on each day of the weekend series.

Thursday: Chef JJ’s, Rollin’ Sliders

Friday: Mayflower, Smoked Biscuit

Saturday: Fat Tiki, Tough Guy Cookies

CHECKING THE POLLS

After returning to the Baseball America rankings at No. 22 last week, the Gators are now inside the top-25 of every major poll, led by BA at No. 13 in the country. Florida is ranked No. 20 by Perfect Game, No. 21 per USA Today, No. 23 via D1Baseball and No. 25 with the NCBWA.

 

A TALE OF TWO (SEC) SEASONS

Florida is set to become the first SEC team to ever reach the NCAA Tournament after starting SEC play 2-10 or worse since 1992 league expansion. 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 15 SEC games since, Florida pitchers have more than cut their ERA in half at 3.79 while producing a .239 BAA and 161-to-59 K-to-BB ratio over 126 frames. The offense has exploded in that time, slashing .295/.407/.507 with 22 homers and 27 stolen bases. The turnaround has shifted the Gators from the NCAA Tournament bubble into the NCAA Regional host conversation.

 

RED HOT REPTILES

After dropping its first-four SEC series and stumbling to a 1-11 record in league action, Florida has gone 13-2 in SEC play while winning five-straight series to save its season. During the 19-game turnaround (15-4), Florida has registered seven comeback victories and outscored its opponents by a 151-to-77 tally, translating to a plus-3.9 runs per game differential. UF hitters have slashed .292/.408/.512 while the pitching staff has worked to a much-improved 3.76 ERA, .247 BAA and 201-to-78 K-to-BB ratio.

 

TEXAS HELD ‘EM

In the first-ever, regular-season meeting between Texas and Florida last weekend, the then-unranked-Gators delivered their first series win vs. the nation’s No. 1-ranked team in nine years, since sweeping No. 1 Texas A&M from April 1-3, 2016. Florida has now taken down the No. 1 team 10 times since 2012 alone. In doing so, the Gators handed No. 1 Texas its first home series loss of the season. Florida pitched to a 2.42 ERA, .188 BAA and 37-to-15 K-to-BB ratio in the series.

 

FOUNDERS KEEPERS

Florida delivered one of its most dominant SEC series ever in sweeping South Carolina in Columbia for the first time since 1996. Representing UF’s first SEC road sweep since 2022 at Mississippi State, Florida’s plus-31 run differential (39-8) was its highest in an SEC series in 23 years (2022 vs. Ole Miss, plus-31).

 

TAKE A LOOK AT THE TIDE

The No. 18 Crimson Tide head to Gainesville fresh off a series win vs. No. 6 Georgia. The Tide boast a 39-13 record with a 15-12 mark in league play. Alabama’s offense is batting .248 in the SEC with a .781 OPS and a .433 slugging percentage while getting on base at a .348 clip. The Tide have pitched to a 5.98 ERA with 236 strikeouts in 228 innings of work. Alabama’s pitching staff has held batters to a .290 average while walking 4.0 batters per nine innings. The Tide also own a .976 fielding percentage with 22 errors in SEC play.

 

COMFY AT CONDRON

Having won eight of their last 10 home games, the Gators are 24-9 at Condron Family Ballpark this year (.727). Florida has swung the bats extremely well at home, owning a .310/.425/.535 slash line to opponents’ .236/.339/.378 clip. The Gators have averaged 7.8 runs and 3.8 extra-base hits per game at home while limiting visiting teams to 4.5 runs and 2.2 extra-base knocks per contest. Florida pitching has also been noticeably better at Condron, as evidenced by a 4.52 ERA, .236 BAA and 362-to-129 K-to-BB ratio in 271 innings pitched.

 

NATIONAL RANKINGS

Florida remains ranked inside the top-50 teams nationally across 10 statistical categories. Led by the fifth-most strikeouts per nine innings (11.7) in the country, the Gators also rank 15th in shutouts thrown (five), 18th in fielding percentage (.979), 24th in K-to-BB ratio (2.58), 30th in home runs (81), 32nd in slugging percentage (.507), 35th in doubles (109), 41st in runs (404), 46th in hits allowed per nine (8.51) and 49th in winning percentage (.660). Florida’s five shutouts rank third in the SEC behind Arkansas (seven) and Vanderbilt (six).

 

ROTATION ROCKING

In the series win at No. 1 Texas, Florida’s starting rotation pitched 13.0 shutout innings with a 2-0 record, 15-to-5 K-to-BB ratio and .133 BAA. Southpaw Pierce Coppola rose to 3-0 with two scoreless frames while rookie right-hander Aidan King earned his third SEC weekly honor by firing seven shutout, two-hit innings backed by a career-high nine strikeouts. King now sits fourth in the SEC with a 2.90 ERA on the season, as he has surrendered just one earned run over 14 1/3 frames in his last three starts. Ace righty Liam Peterson chucked four scoreless innings at Texas before weather ended his outing early for the second-straight start. Peterson is 8-2 with the fourth-best K/9 in the SEC at 13.0.

 

MURDERER’S ROW

Florida features one of the fiercest offenses in the country with five hitters boasting an OPS above .960 including three over 1.000 in catcher/designated hitter Brody Donay (1.064), infielder Colby Shelton (1.064), infielder Bobby Boser (1.000), catcher Luke Heyman (.972) and infielder Brendan Lawson (1.006). All five Gators are batting at least .300 and slugging over .530. Their 57 combined home runs make up 70.4% of Florida’s season total (81).

 

BEST CATCHER IN COLLEGE BASEBALL

As a leading candidate for the 2025 Buster Posey Award, Heyman’s 10 home runs in SEC play rank second in the conference. Catching 26 of 27 SEC games, Heyman also sits sixth in slugging (.673), seventh in RBI (28) and seventh in total bases (70) during conference play. On the season as a whole, the UF backstop boasts a nearly-perfect .998 fielding percentage while pacing the SEC in chances (498) and putouts (463), in addition to ranking third with 11 runners caught stealing. The performance has resulted in a robust .301/.394/.578 slash line, 13 homers and 44 RBI.

 

CLEMENTIME

With the Gators going 15-4 over the last 19 contests, one of the primary drivers has been the emergence of right-handed pitcher Jake Clemente in the closer role. Each of Clemente’s six saves have come in the last 19 games, during which he has dominated to the tune of a team-low 0.95 ERA, .176 BAA and 33-to-9 K-to-BB ratio across 19 innings. All six of Clemente’s saves have been more than one inning highlighted by five saves of six-plus outs and four of eight outs or more.

 

BOBBY BASEBALL BITS

As the lone Gator to start all 53 games, Boser leads Florida in at bats (204), runs (62), homers (14), total bases (118) and stolen bases (16). Looking to become the second 20-homer/20-steal player in program history (Brad Wilkerson, 1998), Boser’s 16 multi-RBI performances equate to nearly one-third of UF’s games while his five three-hit showings also lead the squad. Knocking hits in 22 of UF’s last 25 SEC tilts, Boser has raised his conference batting line to .324/.419/.429. The UF third baseman ranks top-10 in the SEC in runs (third), steals (fourth), at bats (seventh) and total bases (10th).

 

THE YOST THAT DOES THE MOST

Receiving recognition as the sole recipient of SEC Player of the Week honors on May 5, emerging star outfielder Hayden Yost collected three hits and three RBI in the series opener at Texas. Yost has now tallied a trio of three-RBI performances in Florida’s last six games, including two three-hit contests in that span. Across Florida’s last two SEC series at South Carolina and Texas, Yost is 8-for-20 (.400) with two home runs, 11 RBI and nine runs scored to go with a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage on the season in the UF outfield.

 

STEALING THE SHOW

The Gators have stolen 80 bases in 97 attempts (82.5%) this season, equating to 1.5 steals per game after averaging just 0.7 steals per game last year. After 53 contests, the Gators have surpassed their 2024 steals total (43) by 37. Boser paces the team with 16 steals in 19 attempts, which is tied for fourth in the SEC.

 

RELENTLESS REPTILES

By erasing a three-run deficit to win the series opener at South Carolina, 9-5, Florida has now secured 14 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.

 

SULLY SUPERLATIVES

Coming off the program’s 14th trip to the College World Series and second in as many seasons, O’Sullivan is in his 18th year at the helm. Since O’Sullivan’s 2008 arrival, Florida leads the nation with 37 MLB debuts, 16 NCAA berths (T-1st), 10 top-eight seeds, nine College World Series trips, nine Super Regionals hosted and six SEC titles. The Gators have advanced to nine of the last 14 College World Series.

PARKING/SHUTTLES

Fans are encouraged to park at the Fifield and IFAS lots during the weekend. An increased number of shuttles will be available for transportation to the ballpark each day. No parking is permitted anywhere on the grass, sidewalks, or along streets. Doing so runs the risk of receiving a parking citation.

Click HERE for a Parking map.

• General Parking is available in the main Condron Family Ballpark baseball lot, the small lot in front of the Donald R. Dizney Stadium and the Fifield Hall parking lot located directly across Hull Road.
  

  • Additional parking is available at:

    • UF Facilities Services lot off Radio Rd
    • Maguire Village Lot off Bledsoe Dr

• Disabled parking is available on a first-come, first-serve basis in the Condron Family Ballpark west lot with a valid Disabled Placard.
• Fans can follow this link to an interactive parking map.
• RV Parking is available in the Fifield Flat lot.  Reserved RV parking is not available for Florida baseball games. All motor home parking is on a first come, first-served basis.

  • On-board generators are permitted, however exterior or pull-along generators are prohibited at all times. For safety reasons, all motor homes/RVs are required to utilize exhaust extensions or “smoke stacks” to channel exhaust fumes to the top of the motor home/RV.
  • Overnight stays are only allowed on weekend series in the Fifield Flat lot. 

• Do Not Park Illegally

  • No parking on grass, sidewalks, or along streets. Doing so runs the risk of receiving a parking citation.
  • Park in designated parking spots (Do not park on grass or in No Parking Zones).
  • Vehicles are subject to towing if they block streets, sidewalks, service drives, or fire lanes, or if illegally parked in a disabled space.

TICKET INFORMATION
Season tickets and SEC Five-Pack Mini-Plans are currently on sale now in addition to single-game tickets. Tickets can be purchased online or by contacting the Gator Ticket Office at (352) 375-4683.

MOBILE TICKETING & FLORIDA GATORS APP

As a reminder, mobile ticketing is required. There will be two ways to access your tickets:

1) through the Florida Gators app from your mobile device or

2) through FloridaGators.com/myaccount. Fans will also be able to transfer or donate their tickets easily within the app or online.

TRAFFIC PATTERNS ON GAME DAY

Those visiting Condron Family Ballpark on game day should be aware of updated traffic patterns surrounding the ballpark. Fans are advised to utilize Ballpark Way, which will serve as a connecting route to the ballpark from Archer Road. For departures, a postgame traffic flow pattern guide can be found here.

ON DECK

The Gators await their seeding at the 2025 SEC Baseball Tournament, which is scheduled for May 20-25 in Hoover, Ala.

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