Florida Baseball: Top five moments for Gators at College World Series

CORAL GABLES, FL - FEBRUARY 26: Peter Alonso #20 of the Florida Gators crosses home plate after hitting a two run home run against the Miami Hurricanes on February 26, 2016 at Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field in Coral Gables, Florida. Florida defeated Miami 5-0. (Photo by Joel Auerbach/Getty Images) /

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With Florida baseball gearing up for its 13th appearance in the Men’s College World Series, we here at Hail Florida Hail want to take a trip down memory lane and pick out some of the best moments in history from the tournament.

Hopefully, the Gators can add to this list in 2023 and bring home another title, but until then, here are the top five moments to this point in Florida Gators’ history.

Florida Baseball CWS Moments: First win ever

In 1988, the Florida Gators made their first-ever College World Series appearance.

Led by Mario Linares batting .332, Julio Mendez batting .324, and Brian Reimsnyder hitting 15 home runs and 49 RBIs, along with Johnny Wiggs sporting a 2.75 ERA, Florida went to Omaha as the number five seed in the tournament.

It dropped its opening game against Witchita State 5-4, sending Florida to the loser’s bracket.

The Gators prevailed, though, to keep its tournament alive with a 6-5 win over California and win its first-ever game at the Men’s College World Series.

What happened in the game?

Couldn’t tell you. Despite a solid amount of digging on the internet, there doesn’t seem to be a box score of this game to be found, including on the Gators’ website.

So who knows who the hero from this game was.

The joy wouldn’t last, though, as Florida was knocked out of the tournament following a 10-1 defeat at the hands of Arizona State.

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