Pulling out some late inning heroics, the Florida Gators have officially advanced to the championship series in the 2011 College World Series with a 6-4 victory over the Vanderbilt Commodores. It gives Florida the win in Bracket 1 and they will await the winner of the Virgina-South Carolina match-up held later tonight on ESPN.
Vanderbilt put their best foot forward with recent first-round draft choice Sonny Gray on the mound, but he eventually crumbled, allowing 6 runs in 7 innings to take the loss. Gray’s performance is worse than it looks, since he also allowed 12 hits and 5 walks and faced an astounding 37 total batters. Simply put, it’s amazing that he was allowed to stay in so long.
Then again, it’s not surprising that Florida won in the first place since they were 4-1 against their SEC opponents this season. Still it’s a great season for Vandy who advanced to their first CWS, and finished close enough to the finals. Florida now heads to a best-of-three series against tonight’s winner. The championship series begins on Monday.