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Florida's BT Riopelle (15) celebrates after hitting the first of his two home runs against Texas Tech on Monday at the Gainesville Regional. (Courtesy of UAA Communications)
GAINESVILLE — Josh Rivera went 3 for 4, BT Riopelle hit a pair of two-run homers and Florida beat Texas Tech 6-0 on Monday to advance to the super regionals for the first time since 2018.
No. 2 Florida (48-15) survived three consecutive loser-out games to claim the Gainesville Regional championship. The Gators will host Southeastern Conference rival South Carolina in a best-of-three super regional this week.
Wyatt Langford hit a home run in the top of the second to account for the Gators’ first run. Langford also stole two bases on one play in the fifth inning and scored on Rivera's single to put UF ahead 4-0.
Riopelle was hitless in 15 plate appearances, with eight strikeouts, in the regional before his two two-run homers.
Ryan Slater started on the mound for just the third time all season for Florida. He tossed five shutout innings and limited the Red Raiders to three hits and two walks for his team-high 10th win.
"It started with the starting pitching," Florida head coach Kevin O'Sullivan said. "The whole key was to get five [innings] from Ryan. I think for us to get over the hump, for this program to get back to this point, it's important. They were ready to go. I was exhausted this morning, but they had a ton of energy. They were ready to go."
Texas Tech (41-23) lost to Florida 7-1 on Sunday night to set up the winner-take-all regional championship. The Gators had been knocked out of three straight regionals on their home field and this time had to win three straight elimination games to reach super regionals for the first time since 2018.
“Last year left a bad taste in our mouths and we didn’t want to overlook any team in this regional no matter what, and that’s exactly what we did,” Gators shortstop Josh Rivera said. “We came out here and we treated every team like it was the best team we were going to face all year and we just competed every at-bat, every pitch. It’s a blessing to be where we are right now and to understand that the job is not finished.”
Winners of the best-of-three super regionals will go to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, beginning June 16.
Top-eight national seeds are assured of hosting super regionals if they win their regionals. The NCAA will announce other sites on Tuesday.