Florida–Florida State baseball rivalry

Wikipedia

Florida – Florida State baseball rivalry
First meetingApril 9, 1956
Florida 7, Florida State 5
Latest meetingApril 8, 2025
Florida 5, Florida State 4
Next meeting2026
Statistics
Meetings total265
All-time seriesFlorida State leads, 135–129–1 (.511)[1]
Largest victoryFlorida State, 19–4 (April 9, 2024)
Longest win streakFlorida, 11 (June 12, 2016–April 9, 2019)
Current win streakFlorida, 1 (April 8, 2025–present)
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75miles
Florida State
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Location of Florida and Florida State

The Florida–Florida State baseball rivalry, occasionally called the Sunshine Showdown, is an American college baseball rivalry between the teams of the two oldest public universities of the U.S. state of Florida: the University of Florida Gators and Florida State University Seminoles.[2] Both universities participate in a range of intercollegiate sports, and for the last several years, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has sponsored a "Sunshine Showdown" promotion that tallies the total number of wins for each school in head to head sports competition.[3]

The Florida and Florida State baseball series began in 1956, and the game has usually been played at least two times during the regular season. Since the 2007 season, the two teams have met in three-game midweek series played throughout the non-conference schedule playing in Gainesville, Tallahassee, and Jacksonville at 121 Financial Park. The 2020 series saw only the first game played, as the remainder of the season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[4] While FSU owns the all-time series, current Gators head coach Kevin O'Sullivan has given his team the recent upper hand in the battle between the two collegiate baseball powers, amassing a 37-23 record against the Seminoles. Longtime Florida State head coach Mike Martin would ultimately close out his career with 11 consecutive losses to O’Sullivan’s Gators, making his all-time coaching record against UF 76–77.[5]

The two programs have met in twelve different NCAA Baseball Tournaments, including four since O'Sullivan took over the Gators in 2008.

Game results

Florida victoriesFlorida State victoriesTie games

References

  1. 1 2 Baseball History vs Florida State University
  2. Coble, Don. "Gators-Seminoles baseball rivalry comes to Jacksonville". Jacksonville-Times Union.
  3. "Sunshine Showdown sponsored by Fresh from Florida". Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Retrieved 2 December 2019.
  4. "COVID-19 Updates". floridagators.com. University Athletic Assoc., Inc., Fox Sports Sun, IMG College. Archived from the original on March 13, 2020. Retrieved March 13, 2020.
  5. Weiler, Curt (April 9, 2019). "Florida State baseball outdueled in 11th straight loss to UF". tallahassee.com. Tallahassee Democrat. Retrieved December 11, 2020.