Fourth-year players behind Florida baseball season

OMAHA, Neb. — The tweet was pinned on Brandon Sproat’s Twitter page for more than a year. After Oklahoma eliminated the Florida baseball team from the 2022 NCAA Tournament, Sproat crouched alone on the mound at Condron Family Ballpark. I took a couple of pictures from the pressbox, thinking it would be his last time pitching in Orange and Blue.

A month later the New York Mets made Brandon Sproat the 90th overall pick in the 2022 MLB Draft. That could come with close to a million-dollar payday if he signed the contract. He considered it. The Mets had drafted him out of high school and he too considered it then.

There was something drawing him back.

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Flashback to that same night. The Sooners are celebrating on Florida’s home field. Kevin O’Sullivan is on his way to do his postgame press conference, trying to digest the season’s abrupt ending when his catcher, BT Riopelle, stops him.

Riopelle had transferred from Coastal Carolina before the season. The 23-year-old had the best season of his life while playing in the toughest conference in America. A power-hitting left-handed catcher is a commodity that MLB teams would throw money at. Riopelle, surely, would enter the MLB Draft and begin his professional career.

“Next year starts tomorrow,” Riopelle told his manager.

Josh Rivera committed to the Florida Gators shortly after they won the 2017 National Championship. The Gators were on top of the college baseball world and Rivera wanted to be part of that. The slick-fielding shortstop has battled injuries during his time at Florida. Still, Rivera could have been drafted last season but as the first three rounds went by, he made it clear that teams should not take him and he was going to return to school.

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Fourth-year players make an impact on Florida baseball team

Ask just about any player in the Gators clubhouse who was a leader and you would hear these names. As a catcher, BT Riopelle commanded the field. Rivera’s voice could be heard from anywhere in the stadium from his post at shortstop throughout a game. Off the field these two led by example and on it, they helped carry Florida to the College World Series final.

Sproat kicked off the weekends for the Gators in 2023. He posted an 8-3 record and 134 strikeouts. He and Hurston Waldrep led a pitching staff that broke a school record with the most strikeouts in school history — 725.

Rivera set career-highs in batting (.348), home runs (19), runs scored (70), OPS (1.064), hits (89), and RBI (72). Riopelle set a career-high with 19 home runs of his own.

“That meant the world to all of us. Having those fourth-year guys back that we weren’t sure if they were going to come back, that meant everything to me,” junior outfielder Wyatt Langford said. “And I know it meant a lot to the other guys. Just having these guys and being able to play beside them meant the world to me.”

They came back for a reason. These seniors wanted to be part of a championship team. They achieved that during the regular season, winning the SEC title. They won a regional and a Super Regional as well. Florida swept through its bracket in Omaha. They came an inch short of sweeping LSU. If Wyatt Langford’s swing path in the 10th inning of game one is a centimeter different maybe the ball gets over the fielder’s glove in left field and the Gators’ win on Saturday would have been for a championship? A game of inches.

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While they didn’t win the final game of the season, the fourth-year players will leave the program better for having come back in 2023.

“It’s meant the world. I thank the Lord Jesus Christ for allowing me and Sully for allowing me to come back. It’s meant the world to make this a memorable run,” Rivera said. “We worked hard all offseason. We worked our butts off all year during the season. And it’s nothing short but a blessing. And just to be here and compete for a national championship, and I wouldn’t choose anybody else to go to war with. They’re my brothers. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but it’s nothing but a blessing, for sure.”