Florida players contemplate where they stand entering NCAA Tournament

The Florida Gators are looking toward the NCAA Baseball Tournament following a solid performance at the SEC Baseball Tournament.

The Gators fell to the eventual champions of the SEC Baseball Tournament in the Vanderbilt Commodores during the semifinals, so Florida has nothing to hang their head over. Conversely, Gators catcher BT Riopelle is actually more than enthusiastic regarding his team’s chances during the upcoming NCAA Baseball Tournament, as their run over the last week has added some confidence.

“I think we’re awesome. We’re a very tight-knit group to start out with. We have a bunch of guys on our team that have unbelievable confidence in themselves and the teammates that they have around them,” said Riopelle. “That’s really all you can ask for going into the postseason is confidence. We have all the confidence in the world in ourselves. Obviously today, to piggy-back on what Sully said, we didn’t play our best brand of baseball in the first inning and that really was a detriment to us in the entire game.

“So hats off to Vandy. It’s really hard to beat a team five times in two weeks, let alone an entire season, especially the program that Tim Corbin has built at Vanderbilt and the brand of baseball they play. Hats off to them, but looking back on what we did this week, it’s just confidence to take into next weekend.”

While Florida couldn’t overcome Vanderbilt during the SEC Baseball Tournament, nobody in their conference could either, as the Commodores stood tall on Sunday afternoon. Following Riopelle’s statement, outfielder Wyatt Langford agreed with his teammate, believing that the Gators can make a run over the next couple of weeks.

“Just to piggy-back on that, the number of comeback wins we’ve had this year is kind of just a testament to what we believe in as a team and what we know we can do going into the postseason,” Langford said.

As you can see, there’s no shortage of confidence in Gainesville. And why should there be? Florida has been among the best in the nation all season long, and they’re going to be supremely tough to beat over the next couple of weeks.

Time will tell what poor team gets stuck playing the Gators, but it’s evident Florida is on a mission in 2023, and they believe they can finish their season with their hands raised high.