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College World Series 2017: Power ranking the field

By Carly Regehr

Jun 13, 2015; Omaha, NE, USA; General view of logo before the 2015 College World Series at TD Ameritrade Park. Mandatory Credit: Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports
Jun 13, 2015; Omaha, NE, USA; General view of logo before the 2015 College World Series at TD Ameritrade Park. Mandatory Credit: Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports /
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Mar 18, 2017; Orlando, FL, USA; Florida Gators mascot, Albert, cheers during the second half in the second round of the 2017 NCAA Tournament at Amway Center. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 18, 2017; Orlando, FL, USA; Florida Gators mascot, Albert, cheers during the second half in the second round of the 2017 NCAA Tournament at Amway Center. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports /

3. Florida Gators

Going into the 2017 College World Series, Florida is the most underrated team, despite the no-love policy for Texas A&M and TCU. Their regular season was fairly good to them, as they took ownership of some series between Florida  State (3-0), Miami (3-0), South Carolina (2-1) and LSU (2-1). They did, however, face criticism when they couldn’t compose themselves against Tennessee and Bethune-Cookman. Other than that, the SEC is in pretty good hands with Florida as one of their representatives in the 2017 College World Series.

For the second consecutive year, Florida enters the College World Series. Back in 2016, they took out the Florida State Seminoles, 2-1, but couldn’t hold on after that. They would have had the opportunity to play against TCU, if it wasn’t for Florida’s losses to Texas Tech and Coastal Carolina. Since both of those programs are in the rearview mirror in 2017, Florida has a chance to do something that they couldn’t do last year: beat TCU.

They have the right ingredients to run away in their first two games of the 2017 College World Series. Pitcher Alex Faedo has been constantly frustrating hitters and INF J.J. Schwarz has been a part-time mailman on the field, airing balls over fences. Though Florida was mistaken to give Wake Forest a chance in Game 3 in the Super Regionals, the Gators compensated with on-base percentage; there were probably more players left on base for Florida than the number of runs scored by Wake Forest in Game 2.