25 Cheers for 25 Years: Langworthy Walkoff Sends Gators to Omaha
Florida outfielder Austin Langworthy, right, hugs Deacon Liput after hitting a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 11th inning of an NCAA Super Regional college baseball game against Auburn, Monday, June 11, 2018, in Gainesville, Fla. (Matt Stamey, AP)
On June 11, 2018, at McKethan Stadium in Gainesville, the Florida Gators baseball team punched its ticket to the College World Series in unforgettable fashion.
Facing SEC rival Auburn in Game 3 of the Super Regional (with a trip to Omaha on the line), the Gators were tied 2-2 in the 11th inning. Junior outfielder Austin Langworthy stepped to the plate to lead off the bottom of the 11th. What happened next is part of Florida baseball lore.
Langworthy worked a 1-2 count against Auburn reliever Cody Greenhill. He then drilled a deep fly ball to right field.
This is where it got weird.
It wasn’t an obvious homer. The ball was hit at a low angle and as Auburn right fielder Steven Williams sprinted back and leapt at the wall, it looked he was going to make a special catch.
Instead, the ball ricocheted off Williams’ glove and spun over the wall for a walk-off home run. The home crowd erupted as Florida won 3-2 in 11 innings, securing its fourth consecutive College World Series berth.
It was a storybook moment for Langworthy, a sophomore who had not homered at home all season before this weekend. Funnily enough, Langworthy must’ve been Greenhill’s kryptonite because in the previous day’s Game 2, Langworthy had also homered off of him to tie the game in the ninth inning.
“It’s unbelievable. Right when I hit it, I knew it had a chance,” Langworthy said of the walk-off blast. He admitted he “wasn’t sure if [he] quite hit it high enough,” but fate – and a fortunate bounce off the outfielder’s glove – carried it out.
Despite a great pitching effort, the night belonged to Langworthy.
His heroics earned praise from Coach Kevin O’Sullivan, who called Langworthy “a very steady player” and noted how “he’s been swinging the bat very well the last three weeks or so”.
Even an Auburn player tipped his cap – “It’s one of the best games I’ve ever been involved in. It doesn’t seem real,” said Tigers starter Andrew Mitchell, reflecting the heartbreak of being on the wrong end of such a thriller.
Though the Gators ultimately fell short of a national title in Omaha, Langworthy’s blast remains a defining moment in Gators sports. In front of the home fans, with everything at stake, a hometown hero sent Florida on with some help from a glove and a lot of belief.
