The Florida Gators entered the Gainesville Regional of the NCAA Division I softball tournament as clear favorites to advance. While FAU had the resume to put up a decent fight, there was minimal reason to believe Florida wasn't going to advance to Super Regionals.
As things played out, Florida cruised to an easy 3-0 weekend, with all three wins coming by way of run-rule. That won't earn Florida too many pats on the back, but considering how the weekend played out for a number of other national seeds, Florida's easy weekend was nothing to sneeze at.
Florida Gators Advance To Super Regionals Against Georgia
The first huge shock of the weekend was LSU getting bounced. So while Florida beating Mercer twice isn't much to celebrate, LSU was beaten twice by SE Louisiana to have their season end.
Then the massive shocker was Texas A&M losing twice to Liberty, becoming the first No. 1 overall seed to not advance to Super Regionals since the current format began in 2005.
Throw in No. 13 Arizona and No. 14 Duke also getting bounced, and there was no guarantee that being a national seed and being a host would advance you to Super Regionals.
Even of the national seeds for did advance, not everyone had an easy time. FSU lost to Auburn and was forced to go to a winner-take-all Game 7. Oregon also had to go through the losers' bracket to advance.
Arkansas had to come from behind on Saturday to stay in the winner's bracket, and Alabama had to win two one-run games to advance as well.
UCLA, Oklahoma, and Texas are the only other teams that won all three of their games this weekend by at least eight runs.
Ultimately, all of that will be thrown out the window this weekend as Florida will host Georgia in Super Regionals.
But Florida at least has a seat at the table, unlike a number of other notable teams.