Coach Tim Walton was not worried about Florida’s postseason future after exiting the Southeastern Conference tournament on Thursday after one game.
“This game has nothing to do with the next step,” Walton said following UF’s 2-0 loss to eventual tournament champion UGA. “I mean, when you’re playing the SEC teams, it doesn’t have anything to do with the regional approach. We’re just going to go about our business and take this as a midweek loss and get ready for the next step.”
Walton’s words rang true, as the Gators earned the No. 5 seed in the NCAA Softball Tournament on Sunday, marking the seventh straight year that UF has been named a top-five seed in the tournament.
Florida (45-11, 15-9 SEC) will host Florida A&M (24-27, 9-6 MEAC), UCF (41-16, 15-3 American Athletic Conference) and Stetson (38-12, 17-8 Atlantic Sun) in regionals. The Gators begin postseason action against the MEAC tournament champion Rattlers on Friday at 6 p.m. at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium.
“We’re really excited to host,” Walton said. “This is my ninth year here and we’ve hosted all nine years. There hasn’t been one year where it’s been easy.”
UF is 2-0 against its regional field this season — topping UCF 10-6 in Orlando on March 26 and defeating FAMU 9-0 in five innings on April 11. Florida has not played Stetson since 2009, when the Gators blanked the Hatters 8-0 at home.
The winner of the double-elimination regional will face the winner of the Seattle Regional — which consists of No. 12 seed and host Washington, Iona College, Northwestern and BYU — in the NCAA Super Regionals.
The tournament as a whole features a plethora of familiar faces for Florida. UF is one of 11 SEC teams in the tournament and has faced 15 of the teams selected for the tournament.
Florida is 20-10 this season against those 15 teams but holds just a 5-9 record against teams in the top 16.
But instead of dwelling on the past, Walton is looking at what’s ahead.
“This is a new season,” he said. “We’re 0-0. Everybody’s batting 1.000. All of our pitchers are 0-0. … Everything we’ve accomplished to this point in the season is really irrelevant. Now it’s time to play postseason softball.”
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Tim Walton looks on during Florida’s 8-0 win against Indiana on Feb. 22 at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium. Walton and UF begins the NCAA Tournament on Friday.
