The Gators' baseball program had a good day on Wednesday, as they signed the majority of their 2021 recruiting class.
UF has signed 14 out of their 22 commits and the rest are expected to sign in the near future. Perfect Game and Baseball America both ranked the Florida's 2021 recruiting class as the best recruiting class in the nation.
One of the Florida commits who signed their national letter of intent was right-handed pitcher, Samuel Sloan, a product of Lakeland High School. Sloan was a highly-touted prospect and played for one of the nation's top showcase teams in Elite Squad.
Sloan was able to perform well with Elite Squad and some of the top college baseball programs started to take notice.
"My recruitment was a wild ride, honestly,” Sloan told GatorsTerritory. “The first programs to reach out to me were FIU, Virginia, Clemson and Stetson."
More schools would continue to contact and offer him, including North Carolina and LSU, but then Florida contact him.
“Coach [Chuck] Jeroloman gave me a call and we were talking, and right off the bat he told me that he wanted to offer me,” Sloan said. “I told him that I’ve been a Gator my whole life and if it would be okay to talk it over with my parents.”
Sloan talked with his parents for about an hour and then decided to have a meeting with Florida head coach Kevin O’Sullivan and the rest of the coaching staff.
"It went great,” Sloan said about the meeting. “My parents loved the message the Florida coaching staff sent to us.”
When it came time to make a decision, Sloan called Kevin O’Sullivan and committed to the Florida Gators over Clemson, LSU, North Carolina and Virginia.
“I called coach O’Sullivan and told him that I was all in,” Sloan said.
Now that Sloan is done with recruiting and signed with the Gators, he’s now focused on his senior season at Lakeland High School and preparing himself for live in Gainesville
“I’m so happy that everything I’ve been working for since I was three is turning out great and my dreams are coming true.”
Stay tuned to GatorsTerritory.
