Dale Thomas pens farewell message to Gator teammates on social media

The Florida Gators had to deal with the painful ending of their 2024 baseball season on Wednesday, after they were eliminated in the College World Series. Many of their players will have to move on as their college baseball careers have officially ended. And on Friday evening, senior Dale Thomas penned a farewell message to his teammates on Instagram.

Dale Thomas says goodbye. 🫡 pic.twitter.com/P5XRoUZ1Gb

— Nick de la Torre (@delatorre) June 22, 2024

“Thank you Florida baseball for the best two years of my life, the memories, and brothers I made along the way. From a little kid it was a dream of mine to wear the orange and blue and nothing compared to the pain of taking it off for the last time. You know you love something when you have to say goodbye but you still don’t want to leave. 1out,” Thomas wrote.

Florida had a very impressive 2024 campaign, defeating Clemson in the Super Regional in what was one of the best games of the entire 2024 NCAA Tournament. Then the Gators punched their tickets to Omaha to the College World Series, where they won two games, but lost two, being eliminated.

This year, Thomas hit three home runs with a .225 batting average. He played in 46 games this year for the Gators. As a fielder, he finished with a .957 fielding average. In 2023, he played in 30 games, making 14 starts for Florida. Thomas hit one home run, one triple, four doubles, 12 runs, four RBIs, and 14 walks. He also had an excellent year as a fielder in 2023, posting a 1.000 fielding percentage across 28 defensive chances. He played third base, second base, and in the outfield.

Before Florida, Thomas played for Coastal Carolina from 2020 to 2022, earning All-Sun Belt second team honors in 2022. He was also ranked No. 19 in the nation in d1baseball’s third base power rankings. During 116 career games with the Chanticleers, Thomas tallied 18 home runs, three triples, 19 doubles, 84 runs, and 75 RBIs.

As a high school prospect, he was a two-time Golden Glove Award winner in 2018 and 2019. Thomas played his high school baseball with Bishop Moore (Orlando, Florida). He helped to guide his team to three-straight district championship titles. A dynamic athlete, he was tabbed the MVP of his football team and was named the MVP of the East-West Shrine Game his senior season. Bishop Moore finished as the state runner-up in 2017.