Florida Gators climb in baseball polls after taking down No. 1 Texas

The Florida Gators are back in the D1Baseball Top 25 Rankings and climbed up nine spots in the latest Baseball America poll on Monday after their series win at No. 1 Texas. UF’s two victories in Austin knocked the Longhorns out of the top spot.
The Gators jumped from No. 22 to No. 13 in the new Baseball America rankings and moved into the top 25 from D1Baseball, earning the No. 23 spot. LSU is now ranked atop both polls.
Here’s what Baseball America said about Florida cracking its top 15.
“Florida bounced back from its midweek loss to South Florida with a statement road series win at Texas in which it bookended the weekend with a pair of victories. Eight different Gators hitters drove in at least one run, but their pitching was the biggest bright spot this weekend. In Sunday’s series-clinching win, freshman Aidan King was sensational and collected nine strikeouts across seven shutout innings. After appearing to be dead in the water in early April, Florida is potentially a series win over No. 16 Alabama away from hosting.”
Florida delivered its first series victory against the nation’s No. 1-ranked team since sweeping No. 1 Texas A&M from April 1-3, 2016. The Gators won Sunday’s rubber match behind King’s 110-pitch performance and Brody Donay’s solo shot, the team’s lone home run in the series.
“To win a series on a road like this against a really good club, at this time of the year especially, it should be a huge momentum boost for us,” UF coach Kevin O’Sullivan said Sunday in his postgame radio interview. “It was important for Texas, obviously, because they’re fighting to win the SEC outright in the regular season. And it’s obviously really important for us, you know, to position ourselves for the postseason.”
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Florida has won five straight series and 15 of its last 19 games overall, including 12 of 15 in SEC play. The Gators are now in position to potentially host an NCAA Regional if they win their last regular season series at home against No. 16/18 Alabama.
“That’s the one thing that’s been consistent with our coaching staff and our players that we were going to turn this thing around. And we dug ourselves in a hole obviously starting out 1-11 in the league, but they continued to battle. They continue to work hard. They continue to improve,” O’Sullivan said. “Nobody lost confidence in themselves and it’s a great lesson for everybody to learn. So, obviously, we’ve got one more series left with Alabama next week before we go to Hoover, but it was a great weekend for us.”