The No. 2 seed in the 2023 NCAA college baseball championship Florida Gators saved its season with two wins on Sunday against Connecticut and Texas Tech to force an elimination game on Monday afternoon in Gainesville, Florida.
The Gators will play at home at Condron Family Ballpark on Monday in hopes of making the Super Regional against Texas Tech after the two have split the prior two games. After losing on Saturday to the Red Raiders, the team bounced back in a must-win spot to win 7-1 to extend its season.
Who will advance to the Super Regionals to face South Carolina? First, here are the odds:
Texas Tech vs. Florida odds, run line and total
Texas Tech vs. Florida prediction and pick
Florida is massive favorites to advance, but its bullpen has taken a toll over the weekend, especially considering the two had to get to this winner-take-all matchup through the losers game. However, freshman Cade Fisher saved the pen for this one after going seven innings in Sunday's matchup, allowing only one earned run.
Meanwhile, the Red Raiders used four pitchers on Sunday and all had at least 20 pitches.
Overall, the Gators bullpen had 50 less pitches than the Red Raiders heading into the elimination game, which can be the difference after a busy weekend of play even though UF played one more game.
All that being said, I'm going to give the edge to both offenses to find answers to the taxed pens. While the first meeting between the two teams featured only nine total runs, there were plenty of scoring chances with the Gators leaving eight runners on base and the Red Raiders leaving six. Overall there were 15 total hits.
In the regular season, both teams averaged north of seven runs per game and were top 20 in slugging percentage.
I don't feel comfortable laying a big price on UF, but I do think the offense is going to stay hot and help push this over the total.
Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.
