Last night was a good night for the Gators on the diamond. The baseball team trounced Miami 16-5 to advance to the super regional and the softball team advanced to the College World Series Final on a two out bottom of the seventh grand slam to win 6-5 over Alabama.

The women advanced to their first ever Women’s World Series Final in Oklahoma City despite superstar pitcher senior Stacey Nelson struggling a bit. She gave up an uncharacteristic 4 earned runs, but sophomore Stephanie Brombacher came in and struck out 4 batters in two innings of work to keep the Gators in the game. In the bottom of the seventh the bases were juiced with two outs when senior All-American Ali Gardiner came up to bat. She took a 2-1 pitch over the fence for a game winning walkoff grand salami. The women advance to play the Washington Huskies in a best of three series starting tomorrow night at 8pm.

The men move on to the super-regional after a come from behind win and two impressive defeats of the Miami Hurricanes for a perfect record in the Gainesville regional. In the final, the Gators got a solid start from freshman Alex Panteliodis and 22 hits to top the Canes. Panteliodis gave up five earned, but did his job to keep the Gators in the game after getting a nice five run cushion in the top of the first inning. Gator relievers Patrick Keating, Nick Maronde, Tony Davis, and Billy Bullock each gave up six hits total and allowed no runs to close things out for Florida. Preston Tucker and Josh Adams both went yard to propel the Gators to a blowout win over a Miami team that swept the Gators in Gainesville earlier in the year. The Gator bats have suddenly heated up after a late season slump and the pitching was solid throughout the regional. This is a complete Gator team that has the potential to reach the World Series in Omaha. In order to do that they will have to face the winner of tomorrow night’s Southern Miss versus Georgia Tech game. Florida will host that winner in the Gainesville super-regional next weekend.

The softball women look like a team of destiny and it will be hard for Washington to take two out of three with Stacey Nelson on the hill. Her down performance against Alabama was a fluke and she should be back to her dominating self tomorrow night. Bases loaded, last inning, two outs, walk off grand slam: does it get any better than that? That’s the play every kid growing up dreams about and the dream came true for senior Ali Gardiner. The series in Oklahoma City should be exciting.

The men also have a favorable draw against the winner between the Jackets and Golden Eagles. Playing at the Mac proved to be the boost this Gator team needed and it will give them the advantage next weekend. This squad looked better in all facets of the game against Miami all around than they have all year. Coach O’Sullivan turned this program around in a hurry and could very well be taking a trip to Omaha in his second year on the job. If the rest of the team keeps hitting to compliment Preston Tucker and Stephen Locke is as dominant as he was Saturday, then look out.

Ben Petitto is a columnist for GatorTailgating.com