Gators in semifinals of SEC baseball tournament
HOOVER, Ala. — Franco Aleman allowed five hits in seven scoreless innings and sixth-seeded Florida beat No. 10 seed Alabama 7-2 in the SEC Tournament on Thursday.
Aleman (2-4) struck out four and forced 12 groundouts for the Gators (38-19), who advanced to the single-elimination semifinals on Saturday. Florida awaits the winner of Friday’s fourth-round matchup between Alabama and No. 2 seed Tennessee.
Nathan Hickey gave the Gators a 1-0 lead with a home run to center field to lead off the sixth inning. Jacob Young added a solo home run in the seventh and Cory Acton had an RBI double in the seventh and a two-run single in the eighth.
Florida outscored its opponents 24-4 in its first three games of the tournament.
Alabama starter Dylan Smith (1-8) gave up four runs in seven innings. The Crimson Tide (31-23) was 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position.
The Gators beat Mississippi State 13-1 on Wednesday and Kentucky 4-1 during the opening game of the tournament on Tuesday.
The championship game is scheduled for Sunday.
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Gators host Alabama on national TV
Defending national champion Alabama’s game at Florida is scheduled to kickoff the Southeastern Conference’s game of the week slate on CBS on Sept. 15.
The network announced on Wednesday several kickoff times and dates for the upcoming college football season.
Air Force at Navy will be its first game of the season on Sept. 11, the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
The “SEC on CBS” begins the following week with the Crimson Tide traveling to The Swamp to face the Gators at 3:30 p.m. Georgia-Florida on Oct. 30 is also scheduled for the 3:30 p.m. game of the week slot.
The remaining Saturday SEC games on CBS will be determined during the season.
CBS will have a doubleheader of SEC games at 3:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Oct. 9. Alabama is scheduled to play at Texas A&M on that day. The Aggies finished last season ranked No. 4 in the nation.
The SEC championship game is scheduled for Dec. 4 at 4 p.m. and Army-Navy will be played Dec. 11 at 3 p.m.
UF tennis team claims national titles
ORLANDO, Fla. — The top-seeded Florida Gators rallied to beat the Baylor Bears 4-1 on May 22 to claim a team national title.
No. 2 seed Baylor took a 1-0 lead when Constantin Frantzen/Sven Lah beat Florida’s Duarte Vale/Johannes Ingildsen 6-2 and the Bears’ Finn Bass/Charles Broom beat Brian Berdusco/Will Grant 6-1 to win the doubles point. But the Gators won four consecutive singles matches to seal the program’s first national championship.
Ben Shelton, the son of Florida coach Bryan Shelton, clinched the title with a 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 win over Broom at No. 5 singles.