Florida Gators baseball: The best game I’ve ever covered
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — I’ll preface this by saying I was an eight-year-old sitting in Joe Robbie Stadium for game 7 of the 1997 World Series. My best friend was Donnie Smiley, his dad just so happened to be the President of the Florida Marlins, so my access to a professional team was jaded. I didn’t know that everyone didn’t share a bag of sunflower seeds with Bobby Bonilla in the dugout after games. Watching the Marlins win a World Series in extra innings was the best game I’d ever seen in person. 27 years later, the Florida Gators may have one-upped it.
If you are a fan of the Florida Gators or Clemson Tigers, I welcome you to the grey hair club and I hope your blood pressure medication was full. Just as a fan of college baseball, or baseball in general, this five-hour, 13-inning affair gave you all of the drama and theatrics a well-bodied heart could handle.
The Gators scored twice in the opening frame, lost the lead in the third but tied it up. Florida took a 7-3 lead into the seventh. Clemson tied the game in the ninth.
All of this already put this game into classic territory, then Clemson center fielder Cam Cannarella made the best play by an outfielder I’d ever seen.
With two on and two outs, the Clemson outfield has to play in. If a ball is hit in front of them they need to be able to make a throw home to, potentially, save the game. So, Cannarella is playing more shallow than he typically would.
Ashton Wilson stung a baseball directly at Cannarella. The hardest ball to judge as an outfilerde is one it right you.
Cannarella’s first step is in and to his right, that’s a mistake.
He made up for it by flipping his hips to turn and make a dead sprint for the wall. There’s a hill in place of a dirt warning track, only complicating matters.
Cannarella lept wit his back still towards home plate and caught the ball over his shoulder whlile in the air on a collison course for the wall.
Kevin O’Sullivan called it one of the best catches he’d ever seen.
Florida would surender a home run in the top of the 13th inning before Michael Robertson ended the game with a two-RBI double in the bottom of the 13th. Florida’s dugout would chase Robertson into left fileld before dogpiling on top of him. It was a storybook ending for a tema that, many, didn’y think even deserved to be in the tournmannt.
The Florida Gators weren’t supposed to be here
The Gators went into the second to last weekend of the season with a goal in mind. If they could win their last home series over Kentucky and take at least one over Georgia on the road, they should have a resume worthy of making the NCAA Tournament.
That Friday, Kentucky begged Florida to take game one of the series. Like an ungrateful child on Christmas morning, Florida looked at that gift that was multiple errors by the Wildcats, brought it up to their ear, shook it, assumed socks, and dispatched the gift without even opening it to see what was inside. Florida would lose two of three to Kentucky to drop to 26-25 (11-16 SEC). It was at that point someone asked me a question I had never even wasted bandwidth on. Do you need to be above .500 to make the NCAA Tournament?
The question was as valid as it was preposterous. In 11 years covering the Florida Gators, I’d never needed to know the answer to that question. But this is how the 2024 season had gone. And, yes, you needed to be at least a game better than .500 to even be eligible for the NCAA Tournament.
So Florida hit the road to Athens, on a bus for the first time this season, with a goal in mind. They needed to beat No. 9 Georgia twice in order to ensure an NCAA Tournament-worthy resume. The Gators, knowing the stakes, lost game one in Athens, falling to 26-26 on the season and in grave danger of even being eligible for the NCAA Tournament.
Florida would come back to take the final two games in Athens. A one-and-done showing in Hoover for the SEC Tournament left them waiting with bated breath.
Had they done enough?
Ultimately, Florida’s strength of schedule (ranked No. 1) and their RPI (Top 30) earned them a berth in the tournament. It was at that point I texted someone inside the Florida program, “You guys are in, can you get hot?”
The response.
“We already are. They messed up.”
Serendipity
Florida was in, but for only the third time in the Kevin O’Sullivan era, the Gators would be on the road. In 2013 Florida went 0-2 in the Bloomington (Indiana) Regional. In 2019, Florida went 1-2 in the Lubbock (Texas Tech) Regional. Not a great track record.
Florida knocked off Nebraska in the Stillwater regional opener before losing to Oklahoma State in game two. The Gators would come back to beat Nebraska and then Oklahoma State twice to advance to the Clemson Super Regional.
If you’re keeping score at home, skip this next line. If you’re not, follow along with me.
In 2023 the Florida Gators lost game two of a regional to a Big 12 team (Texas Tech) only to come out of the loser’s bracket to win the Regional and face a team from South Carolina (South Carolina Gamecocks) in a Super Regional that they swept 2-0.
In 2024 the Florida Gators lost game two of a regional to a Big 12 team (Oklahoma State) only to come out of the loser’s bracket to win the Regional and face a team from South Carolina (Clemson Tigers) in a Super Regional that they swept 2-0.
It’s a story Disney writers would reject because it’s too implausible.
When the Gators lost game two of the Stillwater Regional, they needed a hero performance or two.
When a hero comes along
The Florida Gators wouldn’t be packing bags for Omaha without Brandon Neely. Florida’s closer turner Friday night starter turned closer went above and beyond for the Gators over the last two weekends.
Kevin O’Sullivan gets talented arms to Florida because of his more than a decade-long track record of taking care of young arms. Neely, 21 years old, bucked that trend.
Neely threw 37 pitches against Nebraska in Stillwater before being asked to finish the game against Oklahoma State on Sunday — where he struck out 11 over 5.1 innings and 104 pitches.
He was called on again Saturday night in Clemson. The junior threw 59 pitches over a 5.2-inning save but his week was just getting started.
Neely would be called on for 59 pitches on Saturday to close out game one of the Clemson Super Regional. He was called on again in game two. Neely was being asked to get the final six outs to send Florida to Omaha.
Asking Neely to throw on Sunday, a day after firing 52 pitches, spit in the face of what O’Sullivan has built his program on but the moment necessitated it. The Gators’ bullpen has been decimated by injury. Freshmen Caden McDonald and, perhaps the most decorated high school pitcher in the state of Florida, Christian Rodriguez were lost to injury before the season began. Junior Ryan Slater was unavailable because of an oblique strain.
Putting Neely into the game was O’Sullivan’s version of pushing all of his chips in. The Gators didn’t want a game three.
Now, on the back of Neely’s heroics, the Gators are back in the College World Series with one mantra.
They shouldn’t have let the Gators get hot.
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