Gainesville Super Regional delayed by weather, Florida & South Carolina awaiting new start time

Inclement weather has caused a delay in the Gainesville Super Regional between Florida and South Carolina.

The game has been delayed, with officials hoping the weather will clear by 7 p.m. ET. The first pitch was originally scheduled for 6 p.m. ET, with a broadcast on ESPN2.

It’s unclear whether the altered start time to the Gainesville Super Regional will impact broadcast plans for the network.

Florida and South Carolina are set to meet after advancing from their respective NCAA Regionals at home last weekend. While the Gamecocks went 3-0 to sweep their regional, the Gators were forced to battle out of the loser’s bracket, winning three straight games after dropping the second contest of the regional to advance.

The two teams previously met in the regular season in Columbia, S.C. South Carolina swept the series with none of the games particularly close as the Florida pitching staff had major control issues.

But in the wake of that series, the two programs took very different paths to the postseason.

Florida went on to bounce back and win a share of the SEC regular-season title, earning the No. 2 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament and along with it the right to host a Gainesville Super Regional.

South Carolina, on the other hand, lost 13 of 18 games leading into the NCAA Tournament. But that’s part of what made last weekend’s bounce-back so impressive. The Gamecocks were dominant again.

Coach Mark Kingston believes his team got its mojo back.

“I would like to think so,” said Kingston. “And maybe we always had it, but you have to be a little more reserved when things aren’t going your way. You have to kind of tone it down because nobody wants to look like they’re having too much fun when you’re not winning. That’s just how you handle yourself in baseball. But yeah, I think the guys have had fun. And I’ve challenged them to have more fun than any team that’s still playing for the rest of the season. Because the teams are having fun and are loose, tend to play better and come through in the end.”

Now we wait to find out, well, how long South Carolina will have to wait to go out there and try to have more fun against one of the nation’s best teams..