Florida Gators baseball earns No. 1 overall seed in 2018 NCAA Tournament

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Image Credit: NCAA

Despite dropping six of its last seven games and looking like they are in a late-season slide, defending champion Florida Gators baseball was awarded for clearly being the best team throughout the 2017-18 campaign with the No. 1 overall seed in the 2018 NCAA Tournament.

Florida, which is the first team in college baseball history to earn the No. 1 seed three consecutive times, will host the Gainesville Regional to open the tournament next week for the ninth time in 11 seasons under head coach Kevin O’Sullivan. UF would host a Super Regional should the Gators advance out of their grouping.

Florida (42-17) will be grouped with Jacksonville (39-19), Florida Atlantic (40-17) and Columbia (20-28) in the Gainesville Regional, which is matched up with the Raleigh Regional. No. 16 NC State (40-16) leads that group, followed by Auburn (39-21), Northeastern (36-19) and Army (36-22).

The Gators are 1-1 against Jacksonville and 1-0 against FAU this season with a 2-1 mark against Auburn. Florida will open against Columbia on Friday at 1 p.m. ET.

The defending champions are making their 11th straight NCAA Tournament appearance and looking to advance to the College World Series for the fourth straight season and seventh time in the last nine years.