OMAHA — Florida is in the College World Series finals, which is right where most people in college baseball figured they would be all along.
The second-seeded Gators advanced with a 6-4 victory over Vanderbilt on Friday. Preston Tucker drove in the go-ahead run in the eighth inning to offset a shaky bullpen that squandered a three-run lead.
Florida (53-17) will play South Carolina (53-14) in an all-Southeastern Conference in the best-of-three finals starting Monday. For the Gators, it’s the place to be to finish a year in which they were the preseason No. 1-ranked team, won the Southeastern Conference tournament and lost back-to-back games on only two occasions.
“You have to feel fortunate,” Gators coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “You’ve got to have some breaks along the way. This is a long grind. This team, from day one, its goal was to set out to play for the national championship. That doesn’t always come in the end, doesn’t always work out that way. But they’ve been focused, and we’re looking forward to it.”
Alex Panteliodis limited Vanderbilt (54-12) to three hits in six innings before a parade of five relievers blew his 4-1 lead.
“That thing could have spiraled out of control,” O’Sullivan said.
Daniel Pigott singled and Cody Dent and Nolan Fontana reached on back-to-back bunts to load the bases in the eighth before Tucker drove a ball into deep left field. The Gators added another run when Mark Lamm’s breaking ball in the dirt bounced away from Curt Casali, allowing Dent to come home.
Austin Maddox (3-0) pitched the last 1 2/3 innings for the win, which was Florida’s fifth in six meetings this season against its SEC Eastern Division rival.
“We’re happy we’re in the finals,” Tucker said, “but we’re going to be just as disappointed as if we went 0-2 if we lose the series. So we’ll stay focused, bear down at practice and do the same thing we did today — executing some bunting, maybe some hit-and-runs.”
Oakland Athletics first- round draft pick Sonny Gray (12-4) took the loss for Vanderbilt, which was playing in the College World Series for the first time.
“We put together a great season,” Gray said.
S. Carolina 3, Virginia 2 (13).
Adam Matthews scored in the bottom of the 13th after Virginia reliever Cody Winiarski botched two throws after fielding bunts, sending defending national champion South Carolina back to the CWS finals.
South Carolina closer Matt Price worked out of bases-loaded situations in the 10th, 12th and 13th innings.
Brady Thomas singled leading off the 13th against Winiarski. Matthews came in to run and advanced when Winiarski pivoted and threw wildly trying to get him at second on Peter Mooney’s bunt.
Robert Beary followed with another bunt. Winiarski tried to throw out Matthews at third, but he threw the ball away, allowing the winning run to score.
