Tag: Florida State Seminoles

PHOTOS: Highlights from Florida baseball’s midweek win over FSU

Check out the highlights from Florida baseball’s home win over Florida State yesterday evening.

Florida baseball earned a 5-3 victory over its in-state rivals, the Florida State Seminoles, on Tuesday evening at Condron Family Ball Park in Gainesville, Florida, thanks to a clutch late-inning home run to give the Gators their final tally.

Ty Evans, who did not start and was even passed up for a pitch-hit opportunity earlier came in as a defensive replacement in the top of the eighth inning, eventually making it to the plate to slug his way into the annals of UF lore. It took Florida three pitchers to cut through FSU’s lineup, with Ryan Slater getting the start and Cade Fisher, who earned his third win, bridging the gap to closer Brandon Neeley, who earned his seventh save.

Take a look below at highlights from Florida’s rivalry win over Florida State on Tuesday evening in Gainesville.

Former five-star signee enters the transfer portal

Matthew Cleveland signed with Florida State in 2021 as a five-star small forward out of Georgia.

The college basketball world has yet another addition to the transfer portal. Florida State Seminoles shooting guard Matthew Cleveland entered the portal late on Tuesday night.

He hasn’t been rated just yet but one should expect that he will be high on the list.

“It’s a bombshell”, Issac Trotter of 247Sports wrote. “Suitors will be lining up for a big-time transfer like Matthew Cleveland.”

This is becoming more and more common with top players opting to enter the transfer portal to chase other opportunities. Simply put, this has become the new norm for us.

Cleveland signed with the Florida State Seminoles in the class of 2021 as a five-star shooting guard out of Georgia. He was the No. 3 player in the state and No. 7 at his position.

The 6-foot-6-inch shooting guard has averaged 12.7 points and 6.0 rebounds over the last two seasons. This past season Cleveland averaged 13.8 points and 7.4 rebounds while shooting 44.5% from the field and 35% from beyond the arc. He had a career high 1.8 assists per game as well.

Coming out of high school, Cleveland had an impressive offer list that included Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Clemson, Florida, Kansas, and Purdue among others. In all, he had a reported 29 scholarship offers.

He should be highly coveted by plenty of programs looking to re-tool their rosters for the next basketball season.

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OF Ty Evans leads Florida over FSU with clutch 3-run HR

It’s been a tough year for Ty Evans at the plate, but he’s proven himself as a clutch bat several times for the Gators in 2023. The latest example came on Tuesday night as he delivered a go-ahead three-run blast to beat Florida State, 5-2.

Florida and Florida State have provided some must-see matchups over the last couple of seasons, and Gators outfielder [autotag]Ty Evans[/autotag] etched his name in the record books of this historic rivalry as the catalyst behind a 5-3 Tuesday night win.

Evans didn’t even start the game for Florida. Kevin O’Sullivan gave [autotag]Matt Prevesk[/autotag] a chance to start in right field after Evans continued to struggle against SEC pitching. The result was an 0-for-2 night for Prevesk, and [autotag]Dale Thomas[/autotag] pinch-hit for him in the seventh, further implying that Evans wasn’t the man Florida wanted at the plate.

Finally, Evans entered the game as a defensive replacement in the eighth inning, and luck would put him at the plate in a two-out situation with a pair of runners on base.

He missed badly on a slider to start the at-bat, but Evans wouldn’t miss it when FSU right-hander Doug Kirkland threw the pitch again. Evans, who has a flare for the dramatic, smashed a no-doubt home run to left field, putting the Gators up by two.

It was Evans’ fourth home run on the year and one that Gators fans aren’t likely to forget the next time questions arise over whether he should be the everyday right fielder at UF or not.

[autotag]Brandon Neely[/autotag] struck out the side to close the door on his SEC-leading seventh save of the season. The right-handed sophomore has transitioned from a fringe weekend starter to an elite closer masterfully, and there was never really any doubt about the win once Evans hit the home run.

Not to be forgotten are the performances turned in by start [autotag]Ryan Slater[/autotag] and left-handed freshman [autotag]Cade Fisher[/autotag] in relief. Slater went six innings for the first time, even if he did run into some trouble in the last frame. He left the game in line for the loss, but Fisher kept things close with two innings of baserunner-free work and earned the win.

Slater isn’t going to deliver a double-digit strikeout game anytime soon, but he’s a strong option to go on Sundays moving forward if [autotag]Jac Caglianone[/autotag] can’t get things together on the mound. This was Slater’s audition of sorts, and he passed with flying colors.

Speaking of Caglianone, the nation’s home run leader has hit another mini-slump and is now on a 0-for-10 stretch. That being said, Florida only managed five hits all night against the Seminoles, and four of them came after the fifth inning.

It’s a good sign that the Gators can win games that they don’t hit their best in, but now isn’t the time for Florida to be regressing as a team either. The back half of the conference schedule is still loaded with top-25 opponents, and then it’s playoff time.

Lost in all this might be that Florida has taken the season series against Florida State and has a chance to sweep with a rescheduled natural site game in Jacksonville on May 2.

Florida hosts Georgia over the weekend, starting on Friday.

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How to Watch: Florida baseball vs Florida State Seminoles on Tuesday

Want to watch tonight’s Florida-Florida State game? Here’s what you need to know to follow the action.

Florida baseball returns home to host the Florida State Seminoles in a single midweek matchup on Tuesday, April 11, at Condron Family Ballpark in Gainesville, Florida, and if you’re wondering how you can watch the action live, you’ve come to the right place.

The Gators got off to a strong start in non-conference play before earning a series win over the Alabama Crimson Tide at home to open SEC competition. Florida then took a single midweek game from the Florida State Seminoles in Tallahassee three Tuesdays ago. The Orange and Blue swept a doubleheader over the Ole Miss Rebels on the road and then took two out of three at home from the Auburn Tigers.

Last Tuesday, Florida prevailed over the visiting Bethune-Cookman Wildcats, 8-4, at Condron Family Ballpark. Then on Thursday, the Gators took the opener on the road against the Tennessee Volunteers, 6-1, before taking Game 2 and the series, 9-3. They failed to complete the sweep on Saturday, however, getting mercy-ruled, 14-2, in the finale.

FanDuel’s updated college football national championship odds

What are Penn State’s national championship odds? A look at the updated FanDuel title odds.

Spring football is in the air from coast to coast as the spring game calendar is about to be jam-packed with the conclusion of spring practices in the coming weeks. As college football teams continue to go through spring practices, or begin the next phase of their offseason after wrapping for the spring like Michigan recently did, hopes for big results in the fall are flowing for a number of national title contenders. But is there anyone with a good chance to dethrone the two-time defending national champions from Georgia in 2023?

The updated national championship odds from FanDuel suggest the answer to that question is a resounding no. The Bulldogs are still the favorites to win it all next season, but three Big Ten programs are among the top 10 schools on the board for the national championship next season. Ohio State and Michigan, each coming off an appearance in the College Football Playoff last season, are in the top four behind Georgia, with another pretty common national championship contender sitting between them and the Dawgs.

Here is a look at the top of the national championship odds board from FanDuel for next season.

Sooners building positive momentum with 2025 WR Gracen Harris

Oklahoma Sooners earn a Rivals FutureCast for 2025 WR Gracen Harris after time spent in Norman for “Future Freaks” weekend.

Oklahoma hosted a slew of prospects from the 2025 class this weekend. That class was the biggest in attendance. Oklahoma is set on building its 2024 class, and those commitments should start rolling in sooner rather than later after Jeremiah Newcombe broke the ice.

Wide receivers coach Emmett Jones has put in an incredible amount of work in a limited amount of time since being hired earlier this year.

He has a budding bond with 2025 receiver [autotag]Gracen Harris[/autotag]. Harris is a 5-foot-10 playmaker out of Ennis, Texas, and Josh McCuiston of SoonerScoop.com and Rivals locked in a FutureCast for the receiver to commit to the Oklahoma Sooners.

The projection is now the second one in Oklahoma’s favor for Harris after Parker Thune of OUInsider locked in a crystal ball favoring the Sooners in January.

As a sophomore, Harris earned a first-team selection in Texas District 5-5A at inside WR. His natural college position also profiles in the slot as well. Oklahoma has no receivers committed for the class of 2025, but Harris looks to potentially be the first to hop on the boat if the Sooners continue to apply the pressure in pursuit of him.

Baylor, Mississippi State, and Florida State are other notable schools pushing for Harris.

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A strong Florida State showing, Alabama tops Vanderbilt and NCAA records broke in the past week in college golf

Here’s what you need to know from the last week in college golf.

With the NCAA Championships at Grayhawk Golf Club in Scottsdale, Arizona, not less than two months away, every tournament is of vital importance within college golf.

And last week, there was no shortage of spectacular performances. Just look at the NCAA records that were broken in the desert. And right around the corner is the Augusta National Women’s Amateur, arguably the premier women’s amateur event of the year.

Each week, Golfweek will put together a roundup of the best individual and team performances from across the country, as teams continue on the road to Grayhawk, highlighting spectacular performances and keeping you up to date on which teams are making a title push.

Here’s what you need to know from the last week in college golf.

Florida baseball completes comeback against FSU

The Florida Gators slowly chipped away at Florida State’s lead all night until they finally came up big with a five-run eighth inning that decided the game.

The Florida Gators dug themselves into an early hole Tuesday night against Florida State, but a five-run eighth inning secured a 9-5 win for UF against its bitter rival.

Florida’s pitching staff was well-rested, but a midweek game between SEC series isn’t the time to use up the top arms on the club. The Gators threw right-hander [autotag]Tyler Nesbitt[/autotag], who made it through 3 and 2/3 innings before getting the hook from Kevin O’Sullivan.

Nesbitt wasn’t great, but some of the runs on his record came after he was out fo the game. He left a pair of runners on in the fourth that [autotag]Cade Fisher[/autotag] couldn’t stop from scoring, which led to a four-run (three earned) day for Nesbitt. It’s the second time in as many games that Fisher has struggled to work his left-lefty matchup, and he allowed all three batters he faced on Tuesday to reach base.

[autotag]Nick Ficarrotta[/autotag] finally got Florida out of the fourth inning and struck out two in the fifth, but he allowed two base runners to get on. Left-hander [autotag]Phillip Abner[/autotag] came in and got the ground out the team needed, and that’s when the Gators’ pitching staff settled in.

Abner struck out the side in the sixth and seventh while the team slowly chipped away at the deficit. He’d end up earning the win after Florida came through big in the eighth.

[autotag]Matt Prevesk[/autotag] had the biggest at-bat of the night, coming up to pinch hit with the bases loaded and only 10 plate appearances on the year. He came through and delivered the tying run through the left side. It was one of six singles in the inning, four of which scored runs.

[autotag]Jac Caglianone[/autotag] was in the mix during that rally with his fourth hit and second and third RBIs of the night. Josh Rivera was the only other Gator with multiple hits and runs batted in, finishing the night with two of each.

[autotag]Brandon Neely[/autotag] closed things out but didn’t earn a save because Florida was up by four and he came in with no runners on.

Abner, Ficarrotta and Neely look really good and might be the backbone of the bullpen moving forward. If [autotag]Blake Purnell[/autotag] and Cade Fisher can rejoin that group, Florida will remain a legitimate threat to beat any team this season.

[autotag]Dale Thomas[/autotag] started in left field for [autotag]Wyatt Langford[/autotag], but it looks like he’s nearing a return after minor surgery. Kevin O’Sullivan is going to take his time bringing back his top bat, and Florida doing alright without him so far.

Florida improves to 19-4 on the season and is at Ole Miss this weekend from Friday to Sunday for the team’s first series on the road. It’s a big test for the third-ranked club in the nation.

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Sooners outfielder Jayda Coleman named Big 12 Player of the Week

For her efforts, Jayda Coleman was named the Big 12’s Player of the Week after hitting .600 in the Hall of Fame Classic.

She’s been one of the best players in softball for much of the last three seasons, but in 2023, [autotag]Jayda Coleman[/autotag] has taken her game to another level.

Already a fantastic leadoff hitter, Coleman has added a power element to her game and is just two home runs away from tying a career-high of nine home runs set in 2021. She was a huge reason Oklahoma went 7-0 last week and 5-0 in the Hall of Fame Classic.

The Sooners picked up four ranked wins last week, beating Florida State, Northwestern, and Auburn twice.

In the weekend sweep in the Hall of Fame Classic, Coleman batted .600 with two home runs, two doubles, a triple, and nine RBIs.

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28 games into the season, Coleman’s tied for the team lead in home runs and leads the Sooners with a .507 batting average, .639 on-base percentage, and a .958 slugging percentage. She leads the Sooners with 23 walks and nine stolen bases on the season.

The junior center fielder is fifth in the nation in batting average and is second in on-base percentage. This is Jayda Coleman’s first Big 12 player of the week award this season and the second in her career.

With the start to the season that she’s had, Coleman has cemented herself as a national player of the year contender.

Coleman and the Sooners travel to Ames, Iowa this weekend to open Big 12 play against the 11-13 Iowa State Cyclones.

How to Watch: Florida baseball at Florida State Seminoles on Tuesday

Here’s how to watch tonight’s SEC action between Florida and FSU.

Florida baseball travels to take on the Florida State Seminoles on Tuesday, March 21, in a one-off midweek matchup between two in-state rivals at Mike Martin Field at Dick Howser Stadium in Tallahassee, Florida, and if you’re wondering how you can watch the action live, you’ve come to the right place.

The Gators started the season with a three-game sweep of the visiting Charleston Southern Buccaneers but split a home-and-home with the South Florida Bulls that saw both teams win the away game during the week. The Orange and Blue bounced back from the USF loss with a sweep of the visiting Cincinnati Bearcats two weekends ago but then split another home-and-home with the Jacksonville Dolphins last week.

Last weekend, Florida took two of three at home from the No. 22 Miami Hurricanes before sweeping a midweek series at home against the Florida Atlantic Owls. The Gators then swept the Siena Saints and a won single midweek matchup against the North Florida Ospreys before opening up SEC play with a 2-1 series win over the Alabama Crimson Tide in Gainesville last weekend.