Florida Gators baseball

The Florida Gators baseball team represents the University of Florida in the sport of baseball. Florida competes in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA), and the Eastern Division of the Southeastern Conference (SEC). They play their home games in Condron Ballpark on the university's Gainesville, Florida, campus, and are currently led by head coach Kevin O'Sullivan. In the 105-season history of the Florida baseball program, the team has won 16 SEC championships and has appeared in 13 College World Series tournaments. The Gators won their first national championship in 2017. History The modern University of Florida was created in 1905 when the Florida Legislature passed the Buckman Act, and thereby consolidated the university's four predecessor institutions into the new "University of the State of Florida." The university fielded its first varsity baseball team, and enjoyed its first winning baseball season, in 1912. During most of Florida baseball's early existence, the new university's athletic association suffered from a lack of financial resources, and few of the head baseball coaches were full-time baseball coaches. William G. Kline was also the athletic director, head football coach, and head basketball coach; James L. White was Florida's athletic director and head basketball coach; Brady Cowell, Ben Clemons and Lewie Hardage were assistant football coaches; and Sam McAllister was the head basketball coach and an assistant football coach. A notable exception was Lance Richbourg, who was a Florida alumnus and a Major League Baseball outfielder for the Boston Braves and others, and led the Gators to an impressive 39–21 overall record (a .650 winning percentage) in 1922, 1923 and 1926. McAllister was the Gators' last pre-World War II coach, and he returned from military service to lead the Gators baseball team again in 1946 and 1947.