Florida Gators Weekend Open Thread: Five teams in action, softball headlines busy slate

This is going to be a busy weekend in Florida sports. A very busy weekend.

Any moment now, both Florida's baseball and softball teams will be in NCAA Tournament action — the Gators with the smaller balls will be trying for their first NCAA Tournament win in three years in their Gainesville Regional opener against Florida A&M, while Florida's softball team will look to put a hammerlock on their bracket in the Women's College World Series against LSU. And those teams will continue play over the weekend, with times dependent on the results of Friday's action.

Then there's the Florida team off to a surprising start in postseason play, which already swung its stick on Friday. The Gators men's golf team shot a 5-over 293 in the first round of the NCAA Championships, and that total is currently good for fifth among teams that have finished play, and eighth among all teams. (It's a stroke better than No. 2 Texas, and five strokes better than No. 1 Florida State.) Florida's exceeded expectations in coach J.C. Deacon's first year with the program, and a top-10 finish at the NCAA Championships — especially after Florida entered postseason play ranked No. 37 — would be an exclamation point on the year.

And then there are Florida's top-tier track teams, who will be attempting to qualify athletes for NCAA Outdoor Championships competition this weekend at the NCAA East Preliminary. Multi-event jumper Marquis Dendy and javelin thrower Fawn Miller, each past national champions in their events, each qualified in Friday action, with more to come on Saturday.

So, yeah, even the last week of May isn't exactly slow for Florida sports.

Here's your how-to-follow table for Friday night. I'll have the Saturday one ... on Saturday.

Friday