NCAA Baseball Tournament Open Thread: Gainesville Regional

The No. 1 overall seed in this year’s NCAA Tournament, the Florida Gators, open play today in the Gainesville Regional. The regular season SEC champs finished the season with a 42-17 record, and were dominate enough over the first 13 weeks of the regular season to secure themselves the No. 1 overall seed, despite some stumbles down the stretch. The Gators are the top overall seed for the third time in program history (2012, 2016, 2018) and are the only school to ever earn it three times.

Friday, June 1

Game One: Florida vs. Columbia, 1:00 p.m.: The Gators kick things off with Columbia. Florida swept the Lions in Gainesville last season and has a 4-0 all-time record against them.

Game Two: Jacksonville vs. Florida Atlantic, 6:30 p.m.: The other two teams joining the Gators and Lions in this weekend’s Gainesville Regional are the Dolphins and Owls. Florida faced FAU earlier this season in Gainesville, resulting in a 6-1 Gators win. UF also battled Jacksonville this season - twice - and split that series. The Gators notched a 10-3 victory in March, but the Dolphins bested Florida 8-4 in April.

Saturday, June 2

Game Three: Loser of Game 1 vs. Loser of Game 2, 1:00 p.m.: The loser’s bracket game will feature the two teams that drop their openers fighting for a chance to remain at the double elimination tournament.

Game Four: Winner of Game 1 vs. Winner of Game 2, 7:30 p.m.: The two programs who are victorious Friday will meet for a chance to advance to Sunday’s Game Six final.

Sunday, June 3

Game Five: Winner of Game 3 vs. Loser of Game 4, 1:00 p.m.: The team which advances out of Saturday’s loser’s bracket will find itself up against the team which falters in the winner’s bracket on Saturday. The team that stays alive advances to that evening’s finale.

Game Six: Winner of Game 4 vs. Winner of Game 5, 6:00 p.m.: The winner’s bracket winner will face the victor of that afternoon’s Game Five for a shot at the Gainesville Regional title, and a chance to move on to Super Regional play.

Monday, June 4

Game Seven (if necessary), 1:00 p.m.: If necessary, a seventh game would be played Monday afternoon.