No. 7 Gators and No. 5 Seminoles Face Off in Tallahassee. Florida is 35-22 vs. FSU in the Kevin O'Sullivan era including wins in 22 of the last 29 meetings.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – No. 7 Florida travels to Tallahassee, Fla. on Tuesday to take on No. 5 Florida State at 6 p.m. on ACC Network Extra for the first of three regular-season meetings.
Each of the last two seasons have seen either the Gators (15-2) or Seminoles (15-0) secure season sweeps. Florida claimed all 2023 meetings by scores of 9-5, 5-3 and 7-5. Despite dropping all three matchups last season, the Gators have won 22 of the last 29 meetings in the series. Florida is 35-22 vs. Florida State under Head Coach Kevin O'Sullivan, including 9-8 on the road.
Both the Gators and Seminoles advanced to the College World Series Semifinals one year ago, finishing tied-for-third in the final NCAA Division I standings.
Pitching Matchups
Tuesday | 6 ET (ACCNX)
Florida RHP Billy Barlow (1-0, 2.51)
FSU RHP Evan Chrest (2-0, 2.87 ERA)
CHECKING OUR POLLS
Florida held steady at No. 7 in the D1Baseball Top 25 after going 4-1 last week with a series sweep of Harvard. The Gators are a unanimous top-10 team and are ranked as highly as No. 6 in the country per
Baseball America.
SULLY SUPERLATIVES
Coming off the program's 14th trip to the College World Series and second in as many seasons, O'Sullivan enters his 18th campaign. Since O'Sullivan's 2008 arrival, Florida leads the nation with 290 SEC wins, 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.
LAST TIME OUT
Despite opening with a loss at UCF on Tuesday, the Gators rattled off four-straight wins capped off by a sweep of Harvard (W 12-0, W 7-0, W 22-6) to finish 4-1 on the week. Florida also defeated FAU, 4-2, on 5 1/3 stellar innings from right-handed pitcher Billy Barlow, who earned his first win in Orange & Blue. In the three weekend games vs. the Crimson, the Gators were led by catcher/designated hitter Brody Donay (5-for-8, .625/.769/1.500) and infielder Bobby Boser (5-for-10, .500/.583/1.300), highlighted by a team-high 10 RBI from the latter.
SCOUTING THE SEMINOLES
After reaching Omaha last season, Florida State is off to a 15-0 start to the 2025 campaign. The Seminoles have swung the bat to the tune of a .345/.445/.532 slash line, backed by 21 home runs and 27 steals in 33 chances. On the mound, Florida State has worked to a 2.45 ERA with 181 strikeouts to 50 walks in 132 innings. Defensively, the Seminoles have fielded at a .980 clip across 540 chances.
GATOR NATION SETTING ATTENDANCE RECORDS
Florida set a new program record with a combined series attendance of 23,737 from Feb. 28-March 2 vs. Miami. In game two on March 1, Condron Family Ballpark welcomed a record 9,303 fans, marking the largest on-campus crowd for a baseball game in the history of the state of Florida.
NATIONAL RANKINGS
After 17 games, Florida is ranked inside the top-20 teams nationally across 14 different statistical categories. Leading the SEC with the third-most shutouts (three) in the country, the Gators boast the fourth-most strikeouts per nine (13.1) and fifth-best strike-to-walk ratio (4.32) nationally. Florida also ranks fifth nationally with an SEC-leading 43 doubles, and is seventh in hits (185), ninth in batting average (.336), 11th in WHIP (1.09), 12th in slugging percentage (.575), 13th in walks allowed per nine (3.02), 14th in runs scored (154), 14th in winning percentage (.882), 15th in home runs (28), 17th in ERA (3.21) and 20th in on-base percentage (.443).
PRISTINE PITCHING
Florida pitchers have produced a 203-to-47 strikeout-to-walk ratio through 17 games. Gators starting pitching has been even more dominant, holding a 1.81 ERA, .160 batting average against and 110-to-27 strikeout-to-walk ratio across 74 2/3 innings. The Gators have fanned double-digit batters in 14 of 17 games while registering at least eight strikeouts in every contest. Showing excellent control, Florida has walked two batters or fewer 10 times this season, and four or less in 14 games.
LINEUP LENGTH
Florida enters the midweek led by five qualified hitters who are batting over .330 with an on-base percentage of at least .410 and slugging .515 or higher. All six players have an OPS above .940. This does not factor in non-qualifiers such as utilityman Justin Nadeau (.444/.595/.519) and infielder Landon Stripling (.333/.419/.472). 12 Gators have posted multi-hit games while eight different UF players have logged three-hit games.
BOB'S BIG DAY
In Florida's Saturday doubleheader vs. Harvard, Boser went a combined 4-for-8 with two homers, one double, eight RBI and four runs scored. Swatting his sixth and seventh home runs in the first two innings of the first game, Boser is now batting .349/.462/.762 on the season while leading the Gators in RBI (24) and runs (24). His seven homers and 1.224 OPS rank second on the roster behind Donay.
BARLOW ON THE BUMP
Collecting his first win as a Gator, Barlow fired 5 1/3 frames with just one unearned run allowed on Wednesday vs. FAU. He scattered four hits and one walk while striking out five to lower his season ERA to 2.51 and batting average against to .273. With the performance, Barlow became the first UF pitcher to go at least five innings with zero earned runs allowed in a midweek matchup since Ryan Slater on April 11, 2023 vs. FSU. The redshirt junior has not surrendered an earned run in two of his three midweek starts.
AID IN KING
Florida freshman right-hander Aidan King was honored as the SEC Pitcher of the Week last Monday, giving the Gators a third-straight conference award winner to open the season. King followed up the act with six shutout, two-hit innings in his starting debut on Saturday vs. Harvard. Improving to 3-0, King struck out eight against one walk. The rookie hurler now has a 0.55 ERA, 0.67 WHIP, .155 batting average against and 20-to-2 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 16 1/3 innings pitched.
STEALING THE SHOW
The Gators have swiped 31 bases in 34 attempts (91.2%), equating to 1.8 steals per game. For reference, the Gators averaged 0.7 steals per game last season. After 17 contests, the Gators are already 72.1% of the way to their 2024 steals total (43). Blake Cyr, Hayden Yostand Boser are all a perfect 5-for-5 on steals this season.
DONAY DEMOS
Leading Florida in every slash category (442/.586/1.038) as well as home runs (eight), Donay ranks seventh in the country in slugging percentage. As an on-base machine this season, Donay reached safely in eight of his nine plate appearances across Saturday's twin bill vs. Harvard to finish with a .619 OBP and team-high 17 total bases on the week. This year, Donay is averaging 6.5 at bats per home run and is on pace for 26 homers in the 56-game regular season alone. Last season, Donay hit a home run every 11.9 at bats - meaning he has nearly doubled an already-efficient home run rate.
FRESH LP JUST DROPPED
Last week, ace Liam Peterson was ranked by Baseball America as the top college pitcher for the 2026 MLB Draft, coming in at No. 3 overall. Peterson has lived up to the billing, owning a perfect 4-0 record across four starts with a 0.86 ERA, 0.86 WHIP, .164 batting average against and 34-to-6 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 21 innings.
GOING STREAKING
Two Gators have reached base safely in all 17 games this season in Cyr and infielder Colby Shelton while Donay has reached in all 16 contests he has played in. Owning knocks in 15 of 17 games, Shelton is tied with freshman infielder Brendan Lawson with eight multi-hit performances.
BELTIN' SHELTON
In addition to being on base in every game, Shelton ranks first in the SEC and second nationally with 10 doubles. Showing an improved ability to hit to all fields, the junior is slashing .348/.410/.536 while tallying more free bases (eight - 4 BB, 4 HBP) than strikeouts (seven). Shelton's strikeout rate sits at a minuscule 8.9% after fanning at a 26.4% clip one year ago.
ALEX FILTH-POTT
To start his sophomore campaign, right-handed pitcher Alex Philpott has tossed 7 1/3 innings while only giving up one run as the Gators closer. On the season, Philpott has a 1.23 ERA, 0.95 WHIP, .138 batting average against and 13 strikeouts to just three walks. Philpott has two saves on the season, which is tied for fifth in the SEC, and has shut the door while recording a strikeout in all five games he has appeared in. He owns a 16.0 K/9 and 3.7 BB/9 on the year.
REPECT THE B-LAW
Hitting his fourth homer of the year in the series finale against Harvard, Lawson has started all 17 games in the UF infield to begin his true freshman campaign. His 19 RBI rank second on the Gators behind Boser (24). Creating a three-headed monster in the UF lineup alongside Donay (1.624) and Boser (1.224), Lawson (1.020) is one of three qualified Florida hitters with an OPS above 1.000.
RELENTLESS REPTILES
Florida has already secured six come-from-behind victories in its 15-2 start. Last season, the Gators delivered 21 wins in comeback fashion, featuring 12 of the team's 13 SEC wins. Florida trailed in six of its 2024 postseason victories and claimed five-straight NCAA Tournament elimination games to keep its season alive. Going back two seasons, 22 of the 2023 Gators' program-record 54 victories came via comebacks.
ON DECK
Florida travels to Knoxville, Tenn. for SEC Opening Weekend against No. 2 Tennessee. The series opens Friday, March 14 at 6:30 p.m. ET on SEC Network+. Game two will air on SEC Network on Saturday at 6 p.m. ET while Sunday's finale is slated for 1 p.m. ET on SEC Network+.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – No. 7 Florida travels to Tallahassee, Fla. on Tuesday to take on No. 5 Florida State at 6 p.m. on ACC Network Extra for the first of three regular-season meetings.
Each of the last two seasons have seen either the Gators (15-2) or Seminoles (15-0) secure season sweeps. Florida claimed all 2023 meetings by scores of 9-5, 5-3 and 7-5. Despite dropping all three matchups last season, the Gators have won 22 of the last 29 meetings in the series. Florida is 35-22 vs. Florida State under Head Coach Kevin O'Sullivan, including 9-8 on the road.
Both the Gators and Seminoles advanced to the College World Series Semifinals one year ago, finishing tied-for-third in the final NCAA Division I standings.
Pitching Matchups
Tuesday | 6 ET (ACCNX)
Florida RHP Billy Barlow (1-0, 2.51)
FSU RHP Evan Chrest (2-0, 2.87 ERA)
CHECKING OUR POLLS
Florida held steady at No. 7 in the D1Baseball Top 25 after going 4-1 last week with a series sweep of Harvard. The Gators are a unanimous top-10 team and are ranked as highly as No. 6 in the country per
Baseball America.
SULLY SUPERLATIVES
Coming off the program's 14th trip to the College World Series and second in as many seasons, O'Sullivan enters his 18th campaign. Since O'Sullivan's 2008 arrival, Florida leads the nation with 290 SEC wins, 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.
LAST TIME OUT
Despite opening with a loss at UCF on Tuesday, the Gators rattled off four-straight wins capped off by a sweep of Harvard (W 12-0, W 7-0, W 22-6) to finish 4-1 on the week. Florida also defeated FAU, 4-2, on 5 1/3 stellar innings from right-handed pitcher Billy Barlow, who earned his first win in Orange & Blue. In the three weekend games vs. the Crimson, the Gators were led by catcher/designated hitter Brody Donay (5-for-8, .625/.769/1.500) and infielder Bobby Boser (5-for-10, .500/.583/1.300), highlighted by a team-high 10 RBI from the latter.
SCOUTING THE SEMINOLES
After reaching Omaha last season, Florida State is off to a 15-0 start to the 2025 campaign. The Seminoles have swung the bat to the tune of a .345/.445/.532 slash line, backed by 21 home runs and 27 steals in 33 chances. On the mound, Florida State has worked to a 2.45 ERA with 181 strikeouts to 50 walks in 132 innings. Defensively, the Seminoles have fielded at a .980 clip across 540 chances.
GATOR NATION SETTING ATTENDANCE RECORDS
Florida set a new program record with a combined series attendance of 23,737 from Feb. 28-March 2 vs. Miami. In game two on March 1, Condron Family Ballpark welcomed a record 9,303 fans, marking the largest on-campus crowd for a baseball game in the history of the state of Florida.
NATIONAL RANKINGS
After 17 games, Florida is ranked inside the top-20 teams nationally across 14 different statistical categories. Leading the SEC with the third-most shutouts (three) in the country, the Gators boast the fourth-most strikeouts per nine (13.1) and fifth-best strike-to-walk ratio (4.32) nationally. Florida also ranks fifth nationally with an SEC-leading 43 doubles, and is seventh in hits (185), ninth in batting average (.336), 11th in WHIP (1.09), 12th in slugging percentage (.575), 13th in walks allowed per nine (3.02), 14th in runs scored (154), 14th in winning percentage (.882), 15th in home runs (28), 17th in ERA (3.21) and 20th in on-base percentage (.443).
PRISTINE PITCHING
Florida pitchers have produced a 203-to-47 strikeout-to-walk ratio through 17 games. Gators starting pitching has been even more dominant, holding a 1.81 ERA, .160 batting average against and 110-to-27 strikeout-to-walk ratio across 74 2/3 innings. The Gators have fanned double-digit batters in 14 of 17 games while registering at least eight strikeouts in every contest. Showing excellent control, Florida has walked two batters or fewer 10 times this season, and four or less in 14 games.
LINEUP LENGTH
Florida enters the midweek led by five qualified hitters who are batting over .330 with an on-base percentage of at least .410 and slugging .515 or higher. All six players have an OPS above .940. This does not factor in non-qualifiers such as utilityman Justin Nadeau (.444/.595/.519) and infielder Landon Stripling (.333/.419/.472). 12 Gators have posted multi-hit games while eight different UF players have logged three-hit games.
BOB'S BIG DAY
In Florida's Saturday doubleheader vs. Harvard, Boser went a combined 4-for-8 with two homers, one double, eight RBI and four runs scored. Swatting his sixth and seventh home runs in the first two innings of the first game, Boser is now batting .349/.462/.762 on the season while leading the Gators in RBI (24) and runs (24). His seven homers and 1.224 OPS rank second on the roster behind Donay.
BARLOW ON THE BUMP
Collecting his first win as a Gator, Barlow fired 5 1/3 frames with just one unearned run allowed on Wednesday vs. FAU. He scattered four hits and one walk while striking out five to lower his season ERA to 2.51 and batting average against to .273. With the performance, Barlow became the first UF pitcher to go at least five innings with zero earned runs allowed in a midweek matchup since Ryan Slater on April 11, 2023 vs. FSU. The redshirt junior has not surrendered an earned run in two of his three midweek starts.
AID IN KING
Florida freshman right-hander Aidan King was honored as the SEC Pitcher of the Week last Monday, giving the Gators a third-straight conference award winner to open the season. King followed up the act with six shutout, two-hit innings in his starting debut on Saturday vs. Harvard. Improving to 3-0, King struck out eight against one walk. The rookie hurler now has a 0.55 ERA, 0.67 WHIP, .155 batting average against and 20-to-2 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 16 1/3 innings pitched.
STEALING THE SHOW
The Gators have swiped 31 bases in 34 attempts (91.2%), equating to 1.8 steals per game. For reference, the Gators averaged 0.7 steals per game last season. After 17 contests, the Gators are already 72.1% of the way to their 2024 steals total (43). Blake Cyr, Hayden Yostand Boser are all a perfect 5-for-5 on steals this season.
DONAY DEMOS
Leading Florida in every slash category (442/.586/1.038) as well as home runs (eight), Donay ranks seventh in the country in slugging percentage. As an on-base machine this season, Donay reached safely in eight of his nine plate appearances across Saturday's twin bill vs. Harvard to finish with a .619 OBP and team-high 17 total bases on the week. This year, Donay is averaging 6.5 at bats per home run and is on pace for 26 homers in the 56-game regular season alone. Last season, Donay hit a home run every 11.9 at bats - meaning he has nearly doubled an already-efficient home run rate.
FRESH LP JUST DROPPED
Last week, ace Liam Peterson was ranked by Baseball America as the top college pitcher for the 2026 MLB Draft, coming in at No. 3 overall. Peterson has lived up to the billing, owning a perfect 4-0 record across four starts with a 0.86 ERA, 0.86 WHIP, .164 batting average against and 34-to-6 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 21 innings.
GOING STREAKING
Two Gators have reached base safely in all 17 games this season in Cyr and infielder Colby Shelton while Donay has reached in all 16 contests he has played in. Owning knocks in 15 of 17 games, Shelton is tied with freshman infielder Brendan Lawson with eight multi-hit performances.
BELTIN' SHELTON
In addition to being on base in every game, Shelton ranks first in the SEC and second nationally with 10 doubles. Showing an improved ability to hit to all fields, the junior is slashing .348/.410/.536 while tallying more free bases (eight - 4 BB, 4 HBP) than strikeouts (seven). Shelton's strikeout rate sits at a minuscule 8.9% after fanning at a 26.4% clip one year ago.
ALEX FILTH-POTT
To start his sophomore campaign, right-handed pitcher Alex Philpott has tossed 7 1/3 innings while only giving up one run as the Gators closer. On the season, Philpott has a 1.23 ERA, 0.95 WHIP, .138 batting average against and 13 strikeouts to just three walks. Philpott has two saves on the season, which is tied for fifth in the SEC, and has shut the door while recording a strikeout in all five games he has appeared in. He owns a 16.0 K/9 and 3.7 BB/9 on the year.
REPECT THE B-LAW
Hitting his fourth homer of the year in the series finale against Harvard, Lawson has started all 17 games in the UF infield to begin his true freshman campaign. His 19 RBI rank second on the Gators behind Boser (24). Creating a three-headed monster in the UF lineup alongside Donay (1.624) and Boser (1.224), Lawson (1.020) is one of three qualified Florida hitters with an OPS above 1.000.
RELENTLESS REPTILES
Florida has already secured six come-from-behind victories in its 15-2 start. Last season, the Gators delivered 21 wins in comeback fashion, featuring 12 of the team's 13 SEC wins. Florida trailed in six of its 2024 postseason victories and claimed five-straight NCAA Tournament elimination games to keep its season alive. Going back two seasons, 22 of the 2023 Gators' program-record 54 victories came via comebacks.
ON DECK
Florida travels to Knoxville, Tenn. for SEC Opening Weekend against No. 2 Tennessee. The series opens Friday, March 14 at 6:30 p.m. ET on SEC Network+. Game two will air on SEC Network on Saturday at 6 p.m. ET while Sunday's finale is slated for 1 p.m. ET on SEC Network+.
