Florida's MCWS elimination game win is another showcase of the mighty SEC (2024)

OMAHA, Neb, -- They’re playing that old familiar song again in Omaha.

S-E-C! S-E-C!

This might have started out as a evenly- balanced two-league Men’s College World Series but it would seem one of those conferences is still very much the boss in June. When the Gators defeated North Carolina State 5-4 in an windy elimination game Monday, several items clicked into place that confirm how the good times roll on here for the SEC.

We will see you tomorrow night! 🐊#GoGators // 📺ESPN pic.twitter.com/lytaOSlVkl

— Florida Gators Baseball (@GatorsBB) June 17, 2024

We now know that three of the final four teams standing this here will be SEC teams. Just not sure which three yet.

We now know the league is assured of at least one team in the championship series. That’s not exactly a shocker since only once in the past 15 tournaments has the SEC not been represented in the final pairing. The conference might even get both, which would be the third time in four years.

Only two last holdouts remain. North Carolina and Florida State, the ACC turns its lonely eyes to you.

“Having a 4-by-4 is pretty cool,” Florida star Jac Caglianone said of the original SEC/ACC split for this MCWS. “It’s really a battle for the best conference, and it’s looking good for the SEC.

“It’s something that I’m sure me and every other SEC player here takes a lot of pride in.”

The SEC is 4-0 against the ACC the past four days, three by one run. The only SEC losses so far in Omaha have been to fellow lodge brothers. “The ACC’s a really good league but the SEC, it’s just another type of game,” said Florida closer Brandon Neely, who went the last three innings Monday to finish off North Carolina State. “The best players in the country are all around. If you’re on an SEC team you deserve to be here.”

It was Florida’s turn to uphold the good name of the empire Monday, and in many ways, these Gators are perfect for the job.

The SEC is renowned for its talent and star power . . .

It doesn’t get much more glittering than Caglianone, the two-way phenom who started on the mound Monday, lasted only an inning, but drilled a three-run homer into a stiff wind in the second inning to put Florida ahead to stay. That was 34 for the season and also made Caglianone the first MCWS starting pitcher to hit a home run in a game since Auburn’s Tim Hudson 27 years ago.

Caglianone’s name should be called very quickly on draft day, but he has serious business before that. “Honestly I just really don’t want to take this jersey off anytime soon,” he said. “The last time I want to take this jersey off will be holding the trophy. That’s what’s been pushing me and that’s what’s been driving me.”

The SEC is famed for its ability to harden its teams for the pressure moments since they face them all the time.

Florida certainly has. The Gators are now 8-1 in elimination games the past two seasons, had to finish this conference season with a surge to just build a record good enough to get invited to the NCAA Tournament, and had to beat Oklahoma State twice in the Stillwater regional after losing to the Cowboys. Any number of times, one wrong step and it was over. “We've been playing, seems like, for our lives the last month of the season,” coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “We were fighting to get over .500, so I think that put us in a pretty tough position. And it probably helped our team to get mentally tougher, to be quite honest with you.”

🎥 RECAP:Florida vs. NC State: 2024 Men's College World Series | Extended highlights

How does Florida keep doing that? As Tyler Shelnut noted Monday after homering, “Anytime we're in a spot with our backs against the wall we've played our best baseball, hands down, without a doubt. I think knowing that we have confidence in ourselves going into these games, there's never a moment where we panic or feel that pressure.”

The SEC can be positively cold-blooded at crunch time . . .

Step forward Brandon Neeley. The scoring stopped in the fifth inning Monday, and it was left to the bullpen to hold the 5-4 lead. North Carolina State was the designated home team so conditions were ripe for yet another late rally and walk-off victory. This MCWS had already seen three of those.

But for that to happen, the Wolfpack had to find a Florida reliever who blinked. Neely didn’t, giving up one hit in three innings, striking out six, standing tall in the win-or-else heat. In 21 NCAA Tournament innings, Neely has allowed three runs and struck out 32. “Every game I consider a big game. I don’t like to lose,” he said. “But definitely having the season on the line, especially being a junior (and probably drafted soon), it sparks me a lot, knowing how hard we’ve worked this year to get to this point. We’ve been playing our hearts out.”

With elimination on the table and understanding a bad outing might be fatal, Neely threw 45 pitches in his three innings and 31 of them were strikes. Yep, poise.

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“It takes a different person to close out games,” O’Sullivan said. “And they're hard to find at this level, even at the big league level. But for whatever reason, he really takes to that role. It had to be in everybody's mind that there's been, what, three walk-offs. I'm sure that was probably somewhere in everybody's mind watching the game."

“A lot of people didn’t think we should be here,” Neely said.
“The last thing we need to do is worry about what the outside people are saying. We can just focus on what we’re doing, and what we’re doing is pretty good right now,” Caglianone added.

A team doubted by many, having fought off extinction again and again, still in the hunt. Sounds like an underdog story.

Except Florida doesn’t do underdog stories. That would imply it was surprising to see the Gators succeed in June, and nobody will go for that within the Florida baseball program. Not with nine trips to Omaha in the past 14 tournaments.

“When you commit here, whether that be out of the portal or out of high school, you know what the standard is here, Caglianone said. “The end goal is to be here and to be the last team standing. Growing up watching Florida, every time I looked, it seemed like they were here. So the way Sully has built this culture and this program to where it's at now is probably the biggest drawing factor to everyone who wants to come here and everyone who is here. It's nothing that we players take for granted. We know what standards we're held to and how we need to play. And thankfully we're doing it at the right time in the postseason.”

The Gators are truly a product of their mighty conference. This College World Series is showing – again – what that means.