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In front of an electric crowd of 8,439, the Florida Gators proved resilient in battling back from 2-0 and 3-2 deficits to defeat South Carolina 5-4 in game one of the Gainesville Super Regional.
The Gators are now one win from advancing to the College World Series for the first time since 2018.
Despite a rough beginning to his start Friday, Brandon Sproat battled through six innings and completed the quality start alby allowing just three runs.
Head coach Kevin O’Sullivan then went to freshman Cade Fisher who turned in a solid two innings before allowing Brandon Neely to close things out for his thirteenth save of the year.
How It Happened:
South Carolina leadoff hitter Will McGillis put the Gamecocks ahead early as he crushed the second pitch he saw beyond the left field berm. Five batter later, USC added to its lead on an RBI single by Gavin Casas.
Florida’s response was immediate. A two out single by Jac Caglianone brought up SS Josh Rivera who crushed a 2-0 pitch beyond the berm in left field to even the score.
The Gamecocks answered with a run in the top of the second but left runs on the board thanks to a 1-2-3 double play by the Florida defense.
In the fifth, the Gators again evened the score on Tyler Shelnut’s seventh homer of the year, a bomb that also cleared the berm in left.
An inning later, BT Riopelle crushed a solo shot to the batter’s eye in center to put the Gators ahead 4-3. For the Gators backstop, it was his sixth homer of the postseason.
Shelnut added an important insurance run with an RBI single that plated Rivera to put Florida up by two heading into the ninth.
Neely came on to close it out in the ninth and promptly struck out the first two batters he faced before giving up McGillis’ second homer of the contest.
Stats:
Shelnut: 2-4, HR, 2 RBI, R
Kurland: 2-4
Heyman: 2-4
Halter: 2-4, 2B
Sproat: 6 IP, 9 H, 3 ER, 7 K, 2 BB
On Deck:
Florida and South Carolina will continue the series Saturday with the first pitch scheduled for 3:00 PM.
Following a disappointing season on the diamond, the Florida Gators have parted ways with pitching coach Mike Bosch, head coach Tim Walton announced Thursday.
Mike Bosch is out as #Gators softball's pitching coach, the program announced today.
"Mike and I sat down and discussed the year and his career here as our pitching coach. We decided that moving in a different direction was best for the program," Tim Walton said.
Bosch joined the Florida coaching staff prior to the 2019 season. In his first year with the Gators, senior pitcher Kelly Barnhill earned All-American honors by the NFCA. In 2021, Elizabeth Hightower earned All-American status as well.
“At the conclusion of the season Mike and I sat down and discussed the year and his career here as our pitching coach,” head coach Tim Walton told FloridaGators.com, “We decided that moving in a different direction was best for the program.”
In addition to the All-American’s, his staff earned three All-SEC selections and ten SEC Pitcher of the Week nominees.
Bosch told FloridaGators.com, “Being part of this University of Florida championship program has been an amazing professional and personal experience.” He went on to thank Walton and athletic director Scott Stricklin while wishing success for Coach Walton and the team.
Bosch joined the Florida program following three years as the head coach at Syracuse where his teams compiled a 88-65 record. Bosch left the Syracuse program to take an assistant coach role with Florida.
Florida will conduct a national search to find the right fit as the Gators welcome a much heralded class of ’23 that features the top two prospects in the nation, (both pitchers) in Keagan Rothrock (Indianapolis) and Ava Brown (Montgomery, TX), according to MaxPreps.
Former Florida Gators RHP Dane Dunning improved to 5-1 in Major League Baseball action following Tueday’s 6-4 win by his Texas Rangers over the St. Louis Cardinals.
Dunning did allow all four runs in the game on three homers and saw his ERA rise from 2.06 to 2.52. The homers were the first allowed by Dunning on the season, an impressive 48+ inning stretch to open the year.
It’s been a whirlwind couple of weeks for the 28-year old. On May 25, Dunning and his wife Rachel welcomed their first child, Mack Anthony. The next day, Dunning’s maternal grandfather passed away in South Korea.
“It was the highest of highs and lowest of lows,” he told the media after his reinstatement from paternity leave, “but now we’ve got an angel watching over Mack.”
Dane Dunning, Wicked Back Foot Slider…Literally. 🤢
Dunning has appeared in fourteen games this year and thrown 53.2 innings maintaining a 1.10 WHIP while sticking out 33 and walking 13. Once star free agent signing Jacob DeGrom went down with injury, Dunning was thrust into the rotation and has been a welcome surprise to the Rangers. Prior to his start Tuesday, it was announced that DeGrom will undergo Tommy John surgery and miss the remainder of the season.
In his MLB career, he boasts a 4.14 ERA over 358.2 innings pitched. Dunning made his Major League debut with the Chicago White Sox in 2020 and has spent the last three seasons with Texas. He was drafted by the Washington Nationals with the No. 29 pick of the first round in 2016 following his junior year at Florida.
With the Gators, Dunning posted a 12-6 record with a 3.26 ERA despite primarily serving in relief and midweek roles for a loaded pitching staff that featured Alex Faedo, AJ Puk, Logan Shore and several more top prospects and high draft picks.
Florida Gators baseball is hosting a super regional for the first time since 2018 after clawing its way back to win the Gainesville Regional thanks to three consecutive elimination game wins. Florida completed the trifecta on Monday with a 6-0 win in the championship game over Texas Tech.
In 2022, Florida forced the winner-take-all game with Oklahoma but came up short after losing the lead following a weather delay of 5 hours and 33 minutes. This time the weather was perfect and so were the Gators.
— Florida Gators Baseball (@GatorsBB) June 5, 2023
“Proud of our team, we played 27 innings in 27 hours basically,” Head Coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “I can’t speak for them, but it’s a little bit exhausting to be honest with you. Look forward to having (Monday night and Tuesday) off and then get back at it and see if we’re going to play on Friday or Saturday.”
If you ask catcher BT Riopelle, the Gators were ready to go even if a little sleep deprived.
“We were fired up,” Riopelle said. “None of us got sleep (Sunday night) at all. I know I didn’t for sure. Anybody that is a competitor didn’t. We have 40 guys in there, including coaches that are all competitors so nobody slept. A little bit of caffeine, a little bit energy drinks and woke up and we had enough energy to play and (Monday) it showed.”
Shortstop Josh Rivera said personally he didn’t get to sleep until about 2 a.m. Monday morning.
“You’re just trying to slow the heart rate down and kind of get relaxed, but you never really stop thinking about what you have ahead of you,” he said. “(Monday morning) we came in and we were tired, but we knew the job wasn’t finished. I kept reiterating that to the guys after the games (Sunday night): The job’s not done and now that we got through today and we won, it’s a very surreal feeling.”
Slater’s sensational start
A year ago on Monday, Slater took the loss against Oklahoma in Game 7 after giving up four runs in one inning of work coming out of the delay. In the winner’s bracket game Saturday he gave up a two-run go-ahead bomb to Gavin Kash in the loss to the Red Raiders.
But none of that mattered Monday. The righty was a big reason Florida followed through overcoming a loss in its first two games to win a regional since 1998.
The redshirt sophomore threw five shutout innings in his third appearance of the weekend and just his third start of the year.
Standing ovation for Ryan Slater who leaves the game after surrendering a leadoff single in the sixth. He pitched five scoreless innings. pic.twitter.com/Cm5esnbt7d
O’Sullivan remarked postgame about the conversation he and Brandon Neely had when he had the chance to face Oklahoma again in Game 7 of the 2022 Gainesville Regional after being bounced after 2.1 innings that Saturday. Things like that don’t come around often and Neely pitching 6.2 innings of one-run ball that day. Slater had such an opportunity Monday.
“It was a pretty easy decision to decide on him to start,” he said. “I never said anything to him about redemption or anything like that. It’s the game of baseball and Gavin Kash ran into a ball on Saturday night. That happens. It’s part of the game…really, really happy for him to have that opportunity and he certainly pitched well today.”
Riopelle said Slater’s performance is something that’s expected out of him. All he thinks about when seeing him is the lead in wins and a good earned run average. In his words, “he’s a stud.”
Though his fatigue from his two previous relief outings showed in the start, Slater worked to get ahead against the Red Raiders. Texas Tech’s Nolen Hester said it felt like he was constantly down in the count.
“We didn’t really need him to do any more than he did,” Rivera said. “We just needed him to keep us in the game and that’s exactly what he did, especially with the wind blowing in he was making good pitches, pitching to contact and letting his defense work so it was amazing.”
BT breaks his slump
A big portion of the offense in the win was Riopelle who on the weekend was 0-for-15 with eight strikeouts heading into his second at-bat. That AB he launched the first pitch he saw over the right center field fence to extend Florida’s 1-0 lead to 3-0.
“The thing about BT at the plate is he might have an 0-for-4, but he is clutch,” O’Sullivan said. “He comes up at the right times at the right moment, and rises to the occasion. He certainly did that today.”
BT Riopelle breaks out of his 0-15 slump and extends the Gators lead to 3 in the 4th
— 11Point7 College Baseball (@11point7) June 5, 2023
His next at-bat? A two-run missile to the right field berm for a 6-0 lead. He finished 2-for-4 with four runs batted in on Monday.
Funny how Kash’s two-dinger night sent Florida to the Sunday elimination game and a two-homer day from a Gator player Monday helped beat Texas Tech to complete the 3-0 run to a regional title.
“Even though he was struggling we were still able to get some wins (earlier in the regional),” Rivera said. “He came out today and showed up big time for us. And that’s exactly what we needed and that’s kind of just all we think about: no matter what we do in one game it doesn’t affect the next one.”
Clutch performances
The Gators were danger of seeing their season end at the regional level for the third consecutive year. They couldn’t afford to go off-script on the mound and for three straight games the Florida staff showed out, spurring the three-game winning streak. Hurston Waldrep started it, Cade Fisher kept it going and Slater slammed the door.
“It gives us all kind of a deeper drive to compete despite how we may be feeling about our own individual performances and that’s huge for our team and our energy because as long as we stay together as a team and everybody individually competes and focuses on just competing it provides us with all the energy we need, especially when we have big time moments that swing the momentum our way…” Rivera said about the effect starting pitchers rolling can have on players.
There was another who won’t get as many flowers as those three and that’s Richie Schiekofer. The graduate student from Rutgers proved valuable over the weekend.
Whether it was throwing a FAMU runner at home in Game 2, making his first starts since the Alabama series, being able to play left field that way Wyatt Langford could be shifted to center or even turning the lineup over at the right times for the Gators.
There’s also Colby Halter — who made just two starts since the final game of the Texas A&M series on May 7 — be inserted back into the lineup. He played like a Hoover at third base while also putting together good at-bats and having a sacrifice bunt against UConn that set up an RBI single for Ty Evans.
— Florida Gators Baseball (@GatorsBB) June 5, 2023
“It’s awesome,” Riopelle said about guys stepping up. “It just shows how ready those guys are (and) all the work they put in. Because they don’t really get their name called all the time, but when they do, they’re ready.”
What’s next?
Florida will now prepare for it’s first super regional in Gainesville since 2018. It will be Condron Family Ballpark’s debut as a host at this stage in the postseason.
The Gators will have a familiar foe: the South Carolina Gamecocks.
— Florida Gators Baseball (@GatorsBB) June 6, 2023
They made it through the Columbia Regional without dropping a game. It’s a return for South Carolina as well. Mark Kingston’s squad is making the Gamecocks’ first supers appearance since his first year as the skipper in 2018. That year South Carolina advanced out of the Greenville Regional 3-0 before losing to Arkansas in three games in the Fayetteville Super Regional.
“We’re excited,” Riopelle said. “It’s a team we’re familiar with, but they’re hot. It’s a super regional. Any team playing in a super regional has the ability to win a national championship. It’ll be a marquee matchup for sure.”
After defeating Connecticut in an elimination game earlier in the day, Florida had a quick turnaround before facing Texas Tech, the team that sent them to the loser’s bracket one night earlier.
Following a 90-minute rain delay prior to the start, Florida freshman LHP Cade Fisher turned in a masterful performance in only his second career start.
Fisher led the Gators through seven scoreless innings before finally allowing a run to score in the eighth after Florida had the game in control.
“[Fisher] was outstanding… We didn’t walk anyone over the nine innings and kept pounding the strike zone,” said head coach Kevin O’Sullivan.
How It Happened:
After cruising through the first five innings rapidly, the top half of the sixth lasted much longer and saw the Gators bat around and plate four runs to grab momentum.
The inning started with a single by Richie Schiekofer which was followed by a fly ball to center by Cade Kurland that was lost in the lights by Red Raiders’ CF Gage Harrelson and bounced over the fence for a ground-rule double. Unfortunately, this cost Florida two runs as Kurland had already rounded second and likely would have scored easily.
What happened next was a series of blunders that could have cost the Gators. Wyatt Langford grounds into a fielder’s choice that sees Schiekofer thrown out at the plate. Langford rounds first and gets into a run down while Kurland races home. Kurland is called out on a bang-bang play at the plate while Langford ends up at second with two down.
First baseman Jac Caglianone followed with a single to right that plated Langford and put the Gators ahead 1-0. A wild pitch moved Caglianone to second and Josh Rivera singled to third base. A throwing error allowed Caglianone to come around and Florida took a 2-0 advantage. Three batter later, Tyler Shelnut singled to left with the bases loaded to score two more runs and increase the lead to 4-0.
Fisher stepped on the mound in the bottom of the eighth having already thrown ninety pitches and promptly allowed a double and a bunt single before being lifted for Brandon Neely.
The Red Raiders got one back in the eighth on a sacrifice fly, but the damage was limited and the Gators possessed a 4-1 lead entering the final inning.
Florida added three runs of insurance in the top of the ninth highlighted by a double-steal attempt that forced an errant throw into left field scored a run and a two run Langford double that put the Gators ahead 7-1.
— Florida Gators Baseball (@GatorsBB) June 5, 2023
Neely finished the game off with a strikeout of Will Burns to earn his twelfth save of the year.
Key Stats:
Fisher: 7 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K
Shelnut: 1-3, 2 RBI, BB
Langford: 1-5, 2B, 2 RBI, R
Gators: 4-7 w/ RISP
Pitching Decision:
W: Fisher (6-0)
L: Petty (3-2)
S: Neely (12)
On Deck:
Florida and Texas Tech will battle it out once again, this time for all the marbles. The winner will advance to Super Regionals while the loser will see their season end. First pitch is scheduled for 12:00 PM Monday.
Florida’s star players put on a show when it was needed the most as the Gators staved off elimination by defeating Connecticut 8-2 Sunday afternoon.
The Gators will have little time to celebrate as they will face Texas Tech at 6:00 PM with another opportunity to avoid a regionals exit.
Florida starting pitcher Hurston Waldrep was spectacular, striking out twelve in seven innings of work. In total, he threw 101 pitches and 69 strikes before turning it over to Nick Ficarrotta to close out the final two innings.
As for the offense, Jac Caglianone played catalyst with two homers and five RBI.
How It Happened:
The Gators got on the scoreboard in the second inning. Luke Heyman led off with a double while Colby Halter was hit by a pitch. Back to back walks by Cade Kurland and Wyatt Langford put the Gators ahead 1-0.
UConn struck back in the top of the third to even things up but a pair of Waldrep strikeouts ended the threat.
Florida added a four-spot to the linescore in the bottom of the fourth on a Langford sacrifice and a three-run homer by Jac Caglianone. The blast was Caglianone’s thirtieth of the season, making him just the third SEC player to reach that mark and first since 2000. More importantly, the Gators took a 5-1 lead with the homer.
The Gators added to the advantage the following inning on a RBI single from Ty Evans.
Waldrep continued to keep the Huskies at bay and in the sixth inning escaped a two-on, no out jam with three straight strikeouts.
UConn got one back in the top of the eighth as they recorded three singles but were ultimately limited to just a single run by Ficarrotta.
The Gators, however, responded in a big way in the bottom of the inning. Caglianone hit his nation-leading 31st homer to the Florida bullpen in right to increase the lead to 8-2.
For the third straight year, the Florida Gators baseball team has its back to the wall in its own regional. For the second straight year, it’s thanks to a Big 12 team.
With Texas Tech’s 5-4 win over the Gators, Florida will need three straight wins to advance to (and host) its first super regional since 2018.
“We got to flush it,” Head Coach Kevin O’Sullivan said postgame. “Nothing else to do but to win the next three games.”
Raider Power
All of Texas Tech’s runs came on home runs. The Red Raiders grabbed the lead in the fourth inning on Austin Green’s 12th homer of the season. Before that, starter Brandon Sproat seemed to be cruising with only two runners reaching through his first 3.2 innings of work. Gavin Kash later ambushed a first pitch fastball from Sproat in the fifth to make it a 3-1 Red Raider lead.
“Not many people that throw hard I feel like usually start off the inning with off speed stuff so that was my mindset going into the at-bat bat, and I was just looking heater,” Kash said.
Sproat finished with four hits and three runs allowed in six innings while striking out seven and walking two.
Florida’s Jac Caglianone did get in on the home run derby with his 29th of the year to knot the contest up at 3-3 after Wyatt Langford leadoff walk. Both teams traded outs until Kash broke the tie again on a two-run bomb to left center field off reliever Ryan Slater with two outs and a 3-2 count.
last year Gavin Kash hit .174/.269/.217 in 26 PA as a freshman at Texas
he transferred to Texas Tech and has been unbelievable all year for the Red Raiders. he just hit his 2nd HR of the night (and 26th of the year) vs. Florida to put Texas Tech up late:pic.twitter.com/tb8cdcaREG
Before his game against Florida, the Red Raider first baseman was 0-for-18 but certainly was the player of the game Saturday going 3-for-4 with his 25th and 26th dingers of the year and three runs batted in. The former Texas Longhorn Kash recited advice from Troy Tulowitzki about the importance of being the same guy no matter what. That definitely paid off for him.
Squandered Opportunities
The numbers tell the story in terms of Florida’s night offensively. The Gators batted a combined 3-for-16 with runners on base and 1-for-9 with them in scoring position. Additionally, they batted .222 with two outs versus Texas Tech’s .385.
“The little things cost you in a game like this,” O’Sullivan said.
He said the Gators had a good plan going into the game against Texas Tech starter Kyle Robinson but just didn’t execute when they needed to. He gave credit to the Red Raider righty who had excellent velocity and command but also mentioned several instances where the Gators just couldn’t capitalize.
Those included striking out twice and grounding out after a leadoff walk by Josh Rivera in the eighth, Michael Robertson putting a bunt down the wrong baseline with runners on the corners in the fifth or Cade Kurland grounding into an inning ending double play when he needs to elevate the ball after Robertson loaded the bases.
Oh that's gotta hurt. Bases juiced and a GBDP. Gators still trail 2-1 headed B5 pic.twitter.com/0uIJ3wcdr6
Dale Thomas gave Florida some life with a one-out-pinch-hit triple in the ninth. Kurland scored him on an RBI groundout. But after Langford legged out an infield single, Caglianone popped out to end the game.
What’s Next
Florida will face UConn in the elimination game at noon Sunday with the winner heading to the final to face Texas Tech at 6 p.m. If the Gators make it, they’ll need a win Sunday and Monday over the Red Raiders to advance.
“It’s definitely a lot easier to win one of these, winning the first two than losing the second or the first one,” Texas Tech coach Tim Tadlock said. “It’s very hard to do it the other way.”
Right-hander Hurston Waldrep is the obvious choice to toe the rubber against the Huskies Sunday afternoon, according to O’Sullivan. There’s no saving anybody at this point. If Florida defeats UConn it’ll be duct tape and glue in terms of pitching the rest of the way.
Backed by a stellar performance on the mound, the Florida Gators opened NCAA regional play with a 3-0 shutout victory over Florida A&M Friday night in front of 7,367 fans at Condron Family Ballpark.
— Florida Gators Baseball (@GatorsBB) June 3, 2023
Head coach Kevin O’Sullivan opted to start LHP Jac Caglianone against the 4-seeded Rattlers and his decision paid off as the two-way star completed six innings limiting FAMU to just four base hits.
“Jac was outstanding tonight, he kept his pitch count down for the most part and got us through six,” O’Sullivan said of the sophomore starter.
Perhaps more impressive was the two inning outing out of the bullpen by Ryan Slater. The Palm Harbor, FL native tossed two perfect innings in relief on just fifteen pitches.
“The pitching overall was just outstanding tonight,” O’Sullivan reiterated after complimenting Slater’s effort.
Florida got on the scoreboard early as Josh Rivera crushed a two-run homer, his 16th of the year, to left-center. With the blast, Rivera surpassed Brady McConnell’s 2019 single season record by a Gators shortstop.
The Gators had a chance to increase its lead in the fifth with the bases loaded and one out. Caglianone, however, grounded into an inning ending 4-6-3 double play.
In the eighth, Florida added an insurance run as Luke Heyman singled to score Wyatt Langford, who led off the frame with a walk, from second.
That doesn’t mean there wasn’t any drama in the top of the ninth. Defensive substitute Richie Schiekofer recorded an outfield assist at home plate with a bullet of a toss to BT Riopelle from his right field perch. That was followed up by Josh Rivera making a play on a ball in shallow center field, making a full 360-degree spin before throwing a dart home to catch an aggressive base runner for the final out of the game.
— Florida Gators Baseball (@GatorsBB) June 2, 2023
Statline:
Caglianone: 6 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 7 K
Rivera: 1-2, HR, 2 RBI, 2 BB, R
Heyman: 2-4, RBI
Pitching Decision:
W: Caglianone (7-3)
L: Granger (6-5)
S: Neely (11)
On Deck:
Florida advances to the winner’s bracket and will face Texas Tech. The Red Raiders defeated UConn 3-2 in Friday’s early game. First pitch is scheduled for 6:02 PM Saturday. The Gators will serve as the away team and bat first.
Florida A&M and UConn will square off in an elimination game set to start at noon in Gainesville.
More than two months before the trumpets and fanfare of national championships, Fred Biondi teared up on Southern Highlands’ ninth fairway in Las Vegas.
He rode into the Gators’ third event of the season on a high. He won the individual title at the Sea Best Invitational to kick off the spring and followed it up with a T11 at Florida’s home event. He finished in a tie for second in the Southern Highlands Collegiate a year ago. Everything pointed to another banner week for the All-American.
Biondi never broke 75 that week. He didn’t make a birdie until his 28th hole and managed only three for the tournament. He finished 81st at +17, 30 strokes behind teammate and individual champion Yuxin Lin.
“I remember working really hard for it and showing up and literally having nothing,” Biondi said at a Thursday press conference. “Golf will humble you a lot.”
Two months later, at another desert course, Biondi had the week of his life. He completed a furious Monday comeback with a 3-under 67 to come from five strokes back for the individual NCAA title. Two days later, he won the championship-clinching point with a clutch birdie on the 17th hole and a two-putt par at the last to cement Florida’s first national championship in 22 years.
Biondi’s 20-month journey from nearly losing his starting spot to national champion didn’t spring from the humility golf loves to offer, however. It came from newfound self-confidence.
Florida head coach J.C. Deacon always saw flashes of brilliance in the young Brazilian’s swing. It was hard not to after the hundreds of hours he’d looked it over, both in-person and through recordings as Biondi beat balls into the humid Gainesville sky. But Deacon saw his gifts wrapped within a player unable to trust himself with every swing, and Biondi finished in the top 10 once during his first two seasons in Gainesville.
After a second-round 77 at the 2021 Isleworth Collegiate left Biondi in a tie for 43rd, Deacon’s patience with the then-junior wore thin.
“I told Fred, ‘I’m never putting you in the lineup again if you can’t go out there and play without trusting yourself,’” Deacon said. “You’ve got to go out there and do it when it matters.”
Biondi shot 67 the next day to finish T13. He hasn’t left Florida’s lineup since.
“He’s never looked back,” Deacon said.
Photo by Christian Petersen | Getty Images
After a T2 finish at the Latin America Amateur Championship the next January, Biondi’s first collegiate win came a month later, a four-stroke triumph at the VyStar Gators Invitational after a scintillating first-round 63 at UF’s home course. His second came three events later at the Calusa Cup down in Naples, where he entered the final round seven strokes back and hunted down the leaders with a 4-under 68. He paced the team with a 70.1 scoring average that season and went 2-0-1 in match play at the SEC Championships, a resume which resulted in a spot as a Ping First Team All-American.
He nabbed two more trophies this past spring, including the Augusta Haskins Award Invite one month after his fateful event in Vegas. But the biggest test of his newfound confidence, and its biggest reward, came at Greyhawk Golf Club Monday through Wednesday.
“You just have to stay really patient (at Greyhawk),” Biondi said. “Take a lot of lines that aren’t even close to the flags and just kind of map your way around the course a little smarter.”
Biondi trusted his game when he started the final round of the individual tournament five strokes back. He trusted his game when he made a costly double-bogey on the 7th hole. He trusted his game when he made back-to-back birdies on 9 and 10 to firmly enter the title fight. And most importantly, he trusted his game when he braved the water hazard on the 18th hole, safely found the green and two-putted for victory.
When Deacon challenged him at Isleworth nearly two years ago, Biondi chose to channel it as a way to improve. After Southern Highlands challenged him in February, rather than dwell in the negativity, he said he made a conscious decision to follow the same path.
In the process, he forever etched himself into the annals of Florida golf history.
— Florida Gators Football (@GatorsFB) May 31, 2023
Florida opens the season on the road in Salt Lake City, Utah to face the PAC-12’s Utes in a return game from last year’s matchup in Gainesville. That game is scheduled for August 31 at 8:00 PM. ESPN will broadcast the game nationally.
The Gators will then return home to host McNeese State in the home opener on September 9. That game is scheduled for 7:30 PM and will be aired on ESPNU.
Florida will take on rival Tennessee in the swamp in week three. ESPN will broadcast the matchup with kickoff slated for 7:00 PM.
The Gators’ home date with Charlotte the following week is scheduled to air via either ESPN+ or SEC Network+ with opening kick scheduled at 7:00 PM.
Previously, the league announced Florida’s annual contest with Georgia in Jacksonville would be broadcast on CBS with a 3:30 PM start time.
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