Florida Gators earn No. 1 seed in NCAA Tournament

The road to repeat as National Champions is about to start as the Florida Gators go into the 2018 NCAA Baseball Tournament as the No.1 overall seed. For the third time in school history, the Gators march into the NCAA baseball tournament as the No. 1 team. Other years the Gators were previously ranked No. 1 were in 2012 and 2016.

Despite a poor showing in the SEC Tournament, the Gators dominance in the regular season was the reason why Florida was selected at the No. 1 overall seed. The selection committed seeded teams from 1-16 for the first time. Previously the selection committee would only seed eight teams, and then geographically pair regionals together for Super Regionals.

The seeding in order are Florida, Stanford, Oregon State, Mississippi, Arkansas, North Carolina, Florida State, Georgia, Texas Tech, Clemson, Stetson, East Carolina, Texas, Minnesota, Coastal Carolina and North Carolina State.

Including the No. 1 seed, the Gators roll into the tournament with Baseball America’s National Player of the Year, Brady Singer.  Singer is the second Florida Gator to earn the award, joining catcher Mike Zunino in 2012.

Singer took over the Friday night role from Alex Faedo in 2018 and the junior entered the season with lofty expectations. Singer is tied for the SEC lead with 10 wins this season and he’s thrown 88 innings with a SEC leading 2.25 ERA. Singer has started 13 games this season with the Gators winning 12 of those starts while striking out 92 batters to just 18 walks this season.  Singer has not disappointed this season and scouts have him projected to be one of the first five picks in the upcoming June MLB Draft.