Florida Gators News: Baseball plays in scrimmage, Ben Shelton moves up

Preparations are officially underway for the Florida Gators baseball team and over the weekend the squad took part in a couple of scrimmage games. Most importantly everyone stayed healthy, but the most notable event that came from the scrimmages was Florida Gators walk-on QB Max Brown getting some swings.

Brown, listed as an outfielder on Florida’s website, had a single and a double during the scrimmages. He’s not on the team as a charity case either as he was ranked the 10th-best high school player in Oklahoma by Perfect Game in the class of 2022.

The season officially begins February 17 at home against Charleston Southern.

Florida Gators: Ben Shelton shoots up the rankings

Following his run to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, former Florida Gators tennis star Ben Shelton has moved up from 89th in the world to 44th in the latest rankings.

Shelton’s run down under was notable not only because of his time spent in Gainesville, but because he became the first American under the age of 21 to reach the quarterfinals of any Grand Slam tournament since Andy Roddick in 2002.

Shelton’s run admittedly did not have him face any of the top ranked stars, and Shelton himself on Twitter acknowledged that the work has only begun.

Track and field sets world leading time

Following track and field prior to the conference championships can be tricky because almost none of the meets prior to the conference meet keep team scores. But sometimes an individual or relay can run a time so fast that one has to take notice.

That was the case for the Florida Gators men’s 4 X 4 this weekend in Arkansas. Competing at the Razorback Invitational, the foursome of Jacory Patterson, Emmanuel Bamidele, Robert Gregory, and Ryan Willie teamed up to run 3:04.11.

That mark is not only the fastest in the NCAA this season, but it is the fastest any 4 x 4 squad has run in the world in 2023.