Florida Gators climb to No. 4 in the country after sweeping Vanderbilt
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Florida Gators rose to the occasion against the No. 1 team in the SEC last weekend and rose up the rankings as a result. The Gators are now ranked No. 4 in the country. Florida’s sweep of Vanderbilt improved the Gators’ record to 40-12. It’s the 25th time the Gators have won 40 games in the regular season and the most regular season wins since Florida won 41 in 2018.
The Gators’ sweep of Vanderbilt shot them back into the top five and should position Florida nicely to attain a national seed.
“I don’t care who you sweep, but that team in the other dugout is pretty darn good. They can swing the bats, we just did a good job this weekend pitching-wise. I think the key to this weekend was keeping Enrique (Bradfield Jr.) off the basepaths. It was just one of those weekends… Sometimes it’s not who you play, it’s when you play them, and we played pretty darn well this weekend.”
Gators weekend recap
When the schedules are released every year this is the matchup that everyone looks for. The Gators and ‘Dores are the class of the SEC East on the diamond and always compete.
It was a clash of top-10 teams in Gainesville with Florida’s pitching staff showing up in a big way. Vanderbilt was only able to scratch across four runs. Brandon Sproat threw a gem on Friday night as the Gators blanked Vanderbilt 10-0. Despite rain ruining Hurston Waldrep’s start on Saturday, Florida’s bullpen limited Vanderbilt to just two runs in a 6-2 win. The Sunday finale saw Jac Caglianone’s best start of the season. The sophomore tied his career high with 6.2 innings pitched and just one run allowed. His nine strikeouts were also a career-high.
“We ask a lot of him. It’s 90-plus degrees outside today and he’s doing two-way, and he gave us over a hundred pitches. We couldn’t ask for any more from him.”
New Top 25
| Rank | Team | Overall Record | Record Last Week | Previous Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wake Forest | 42-8 | 3-1 | 1 |
| 2 | Arkansas | 38-13 | 2-1 | 3 |
| 3 | Stanford | 34-14 | 3-1 | 4 |
| 4 | Florida | 40-12 | 3-0 | 7 |
| 5 | LSU | 39-12 | 2-2 | 2 |
| 6 | West Virginia | 39-13 | 3-1 | 12 |
| 7 | Clemson | 35-17 | 4-0 | 16 |
| 8 | Coastal Carolina | 33-17 | 3-1 | 8 |
| 9 | Connecticut | 38-12 | 3-1 | 9 |
| 10 | Oregon State | 36-15 | 3-1 | 15 |
| 11 | Miami | 34-17 | 3-1 | 11 |
| 12 | Vanderbilt | 35-16 | 1-3 | 5 |
| 13 | South Carolina | 37-14 | 1-3 | 6 |
| 14 | Campbell | 39-11 | 3-1 | 13 |
| 15 | East Carolina | 38-14 | 4-0 | 14 |
| 16 | Duke | 34-16 | 2-3 | 10 |
| 17 | Dallas Baptist | 40-12 | 4-0 | 18 |
| 18 | Tennessee | 35-17 | 3-1 | 23 |
| 19 | Kentucky | 35-15 | 2-2 | 17 |
| 20 | Maryland | 35-18 | 2-2 | 19 |
| 21 | Virginia | 41-11 | 4-0 | 21 |
| 22 | Boston College | 32-16 | 2-0 | 20 |
| 23 | Southern Miss | 35-15 | 3-0 | 25 |
| 24 | Washington | 32-14 | 4-0 | NR |
| 25 | Oklahoma State | 35-15 | 2-1 | NR |
| Dropped Out | ||||
| UTSA | 36-15 | 0-3 | 22 | |
| Oregon | 31-19 | 0-3 | 24 |
