Florida comes into play this weekend at a robust 39-11 overall and 18-6 in league play. Perhaps even more impressive is their record on the weekend, which is 29-7. A couple of mid-week losses are the only reason they probably won’t win 45 games in the regular season, though they could if they sweep us and Miss State next weekend.
Florida began league play by taking 2/3 from South Carolina in Columbia. They came home and dropped the opener to Arkansas before beating the Hogs 17-2 and 5-4 in Gainesville. I’d venture to say that the majority of AA teams around the country wouldn’t beat Arkansas by 15 runs. Florida then swept Vanderbilt in Gainesville and took 2/3 from Tennessee in Knoxville. Florida outscored Missouri 20-5 is a three game sweep at home, then took 2/3 from Kentucky in Lexington. Florida split the first two with Auburn in Gainesville before easily winning the rubber game, 12-3. Last weekend, Florida won the first two in College Station by a combined score of 15-1 before dropping the Sunday contest.
The Gators also took 2/3 from Miami in Coral Gables and swept Florida State in three midweek meetings this year also.
I think it’s fair to say that Florida isn’t quite as strong on the road… nobody is, but there does certainly seem to be a dropoff. Really wish we had these guys in Athens. McKethan Stadium is not an intimidating place to play, other than the occasional racial slurs (seriously)… it’s not Oxford or College Station or Baton Rouge. But the Gators play really, really well down there.
Tomorrow night, we’re going to see Brady Singer. He’s a lanky righty from Eustis Florida. The junior should be drafted in the top half of the first round this summer. To put Florida’s pitching depth over the years in some perspective, Singer didn’t make his first start until the SECT his freshman year. On the year, Singer is 10-1 in 12 appearances, all starts, and has a 2.33 ERA. His 81 innings lead their staff and he has a pretty ridiculous 86/17 K/BB. Opponents are hitting .177 against him. Singer went CG last weekend at College Station, recording 27 outs with 111 pitches. He’s get a lot of groundballs.
Saturday, we’ll see Jackson Kowar, who has a good chance of going in the first round. Kowar is a lanky junior from Charlotte NC. I imagine that he’s probably the best #2 starter in the country. On the year, he’s 8-2 in 12 appearances, all starts, and has a 2.80 ERA. He’s thrown 74 innings and has a 71/31 K/BB. Opponents are hitting .222 against him. He’s a groundball pitcher for the most part.
On Sunday, we’ll face off with freshman righty Jack Leftwich. This guy moved into their weekend rotation fairly recently. Leftwich is a stocky young guy from Orlando. Perfect game had him rated as the #1 right hander in the Sunshine state coming out of high school and the #45 overall high school player. Leftwich has made 17 appearances, 6 starts, and has a 3.96 ERA and 4-2 record. He’s also carded 2 saves. He’s thrown 52 1/3 innings and has a 49/15 K/BB.
Florida’s closer is Michael Byrne, a junior righty from Orlando. He has 12 saves on the year and a 1.38 ERA in 24 appearances. He’s thrown 39 innings and he throws strikes, as evidenced by his 41/2 K/BB. 2 walks in 39 innings… not too shabby. Opponents are hitting .186 against him. Their other main relievers look to be Jordan Butler (a lefty), Andrew Baker (a lefty), and Tommy Mace (a righty). Butler and Mace are freshmen and Baker is a sophomore.
As a staff, Florida has a 3.24 ERA and a .223 average against. They are very close to a strikeout per inning as a staff, with 432 strikeouts on the year in 444 innings. In league play only, Florida has the #1 ERA (3.69), lowest opponent batting average and fewest hits allowed. #2 in each of those categories? The Georgia Bulldogs. Florida is also tied for the fewest walks allowed in league play.
Kevin O’Sullivan teams are always very deep and very talented on the mound. This one is no exception.
Offensively, Florida is paced by Jonathan India. The junior from Coral Springs Florida attended American Heritage High School with Sony Michel and Isaiah McKenzie. We’ll see India playing 3rd and batting 3rd this weekend. He’s hitting .382/.5/ with 15 HRs and 38 RBI. He’s also their stolen base leader at 11/13. India has drawn 41 walks on the season against 36 strikeouts.
JJ Schwartz finally enters his last year in Gainesville. We should see him behind the plate and maybe playing 1B. As hot as it is going to be, I wonder if he’ll catch all three. Like India, Schwartz is a right handed hitter. He hails from Palm Beach Gardens. On the year, he’s hitting .321/.403/.583 with 10 HRs and 41 RBI. He’s K’d 49 times, but draw 27 walks. Schwartz has hit 47 career HRs for Florida. It’s not like he was bad his sophomore or junior years, he was very productive both seasons, but after he hit 18 HRs as a freshman in 2015, I’m sure most thought he’d be at 55 HRs or so by the end of his junior year. Tomorrow night will mark his 258th career start for the Gators.
We’ll see Deacon Liput leading off and playing SS. Liput is a junior left handed hitter from Oviedo Florida. On the season, he’s hitting .305/.374/.490 with 6 HRs and 30 RBI. He’s also 7/9 in steals.
As great of a year as India is having, he is not Florida’ HR leader. That honor belongs to Wil Dalton, who we’ll see playing RF and hitting cleanup. On the season, Dalton is .278/.353/.596 with 16 HRs and also a team leading 49 RBI. He leads the Gators with 57 strikeouts and has walked 18 times. HE is tied for second on their with 7 steals in 10 tries. Dalton is a sophomore right handed hitter from Spring Hill Tennessee.
On the season Florida is 55/76 in steals. That’s third most in attempts and successes in the league, overall. But unlike Missouri last weekend, Florida has their run game working in league play also. The Gators are 27/33 in steals in conference play (second best on both sides). In SEC games only, Florida is 4th in batting average (.001 above us), 2nd in slugging, 2nd in on base percentage, tops in runs scored, and 2nd in HRs. Florida is fielding .973 in league play, 8th overall, and .008 worse than us (we lead the SEC in in-conference fielding percentage at .981).
These guys are really good. That goes without saying. I’ve said a number of times that the team of theirs that won the national title last year wasn’t O’Sullivan’s best team in Gainesville. They were probably his 4th or 5th best team, really. And on paper, this year is better than what they had last season, too. Florida is a machine right now… they have been for awhile. They recruit at a very high level, but they also develop players when they got there.
Florida plays with an edge to them and has since O’Sullivan has been there. We always seem to have at least one “dust up” with them every season and they’re the only team for whom that is the case. They talk a lot on the field, they’ll throw at batters, all that kind of stuff. I expect this to be a chippy series. I’m also interested to see how Florida approaches it… they’ve been so good recently and we haven’t. While we’ve played them close a number of times, I’m sure that they don’t view us as being on their level or being a real serious threat to them. They can’t say that this year. Record wise and statistically, there isn’t a TON of difference between us and them. They’re a better team that we are on paper, but I’m telling you, the difference isn’t as big as you might think.
We’ve handled it so well this year, all season long. We hit one rough spot with the Charleston trip, but we overcame that. We lost the three series in a row there in April, but we managed to get one win each weekend, and put ourselves in position to get a few more. I don’t think their uniform is going to beat us, I really don’t… I think that we can play with these guys and I really believe that we’ll get a W this weekend.
Either way though, I stand by what I said earlier. This is going to be the toughest three game series we play all season. We can go to Omaha, go to the national title series, nothing is going to be tougher than this one. Tough doesn’t mean un-doable anymore, though.
Florida began league play by taking 2/3 from South Carolina in Columbia. They came home and dropped the opener to Arkansas before beating the Hogs 17-2 and 5-4 in Gainesville. I’d venture to say that the majority of AA teams around the country wouldn’t beat Arkansas by 15 runs. Florida then swept Vanderbilt in Gainesville and took 2/3 from Tennessee in Knoxville. Florida outscored Missouri 20-5 is a three game sweep at home, then took 2/3 from Kentucky in Lexington. Florida split the first two with Auburn in Gainesville before easily winning the rubber game, 12-3. Last weekend, Florida won the first two in College Station by a combined score of 15-1 before dropping the Sunday contest.
The Gators also took 2/3 from Miami in Coral Gables and swept Florida State in three midweek meetings this year also.
I think it’s fair to say that Florida isn’t quite as strong on the road… nobody is, but there does certainly seem to be a dropoff. Really wish we had these guys in Athens. McKethan Stadium is not an intimidating place to play, other than the occasional racial slurs (seriously)… it’s not Oxford or College Station or Baton Rouge. But the Gators play really, really well down there.
Tomorrow night, we’re going to see Brady Singer. He’s a lanky righty from Eustis Florida. The junior should be drafted in the top half of the first round this summer. To put Florida’s pitching depth over the years in some perspective, Singer didn’t make his first start until the SECT his freshman year. On the year, Singer is 10-1 in 12 appearances, all starts, and has a 2.33 ERA. His 81 innings lead their staff and he has a pretty ridiculous 86/17 K/BB. Opponents are hitting .177 against him. Singer went CG last weekend at College Station, recording 27 outs with 111 pitches. He’s get a lot of groundballs.
Saturday, we’ll see Jackson Kowar, who has a good chance of going in the first round. Kowar is a lanky junior from Charlotte NC. I imagine that he’s probably the best #2 starter in the country. On the year, he’s 8-2 in 12 appearances, all starts, and has a 2.80 ERA. He’s thrown 74 innings and has a 71/31 K/BB. Opponents are hitting .222 against him. He’s a groundball pitcher for the most part.
On Sunday, we’ll face off with freshman righty Jack Leftwich. This guy moved into their weekend rotation fairly recently. Leftwich is a stocky young guy from Orlando. Perfect game had him rated as the #1 right hander in the Sunshine state coming out of high school and the #45 overall high school player. Leftwich has made 17 appearances, 6 starts, and has a 3.96 ERA and 4-2 record. He’s also carded 2 saves. He’s thrown 52 1/3 innings and has a 49/15 K/BB.
Florida’s closer is Michael Byrne, a junior righty from Orlando. He has 12 saves on the year and a 1.38 ERA in 24 appearances. He’s thrown 39 innings and he throws strikes, as evidenced by his 41/2 K/BB. 2 walks in 39 innings… not too shabby. Opponents are hitting .186 against him. Their other main relievers look to be Jordan Butler (a lefty), Andrew Baker (a lefty), and Tommy Mace (a righty). Butler and Mace are freshmen and Baker is a sophomore.
As a staff, Florida has a 3.24 ERA and a .223 average against. They are very close to a strikeout per inning as a staff, with 432 strikeouts on the year in 444 innings. In league play only, Florida has the #1 ERA (3.69), lowest opponent batting average and fewest hits allowed. #2 in each of those categories? The Georgia Bulldogs. Florida is also tied for the fewest walks allowed in league play.
Kevin O’Sullivan teams are always very deep and very talented on the mound. This one is no exception.
Offensively, Florida is paced by Jonathan India. The junior from Coral Springs Florida attended American Heritage High School with Sony Michel and Isaiah McKenzie. We’ll see India playing 3rd and batting 3rd this weekend. He’s hitting .382/.5/ with 15 HRs and 38 RBI. He’s also their stolen base leader at 11/13. India has drawn 41 walks on the season against 36 strikeouts.
JJ Schwartz finally enters his last year in Gainesville. We should see him behind the plate and maybe playing 1B. As hot as it is going to be, I wonder if he’ll catch all three. Like India, Schwartz is a right handed hitter. He hails from Palm Beach Gardens. On the year, he’s hitting .321/.403/.583 with 10 HRs and 41 RBI. He’s K’d 49 times, but draw 27 walks. Schwartz has hit 47 career HRs for Florida. It’s not like he was bad his sophomore or junior years, he was very productive both seasons, but after he hit 18 HRs as a freshman in 2015, I’m sure most thought he’d be at 55 HRs or so by the end of his junior year. Tomorrow night will mark his 258th career start for the Gators.
We’ll see Deacon Liput leading off and playing SS. Liput is a junior left handed hitter from Oviedo Florida. On the season, he’s hitting .305/.374/.490 with 6 HRs and 30 RBI. He’s also 7/9 in steals.
As great of a year as India is having, he is not Florida’ HR leader. That honor belongs to Wil Dalton, who we’ll see playing RF and hitting cleanup. On the season, Dalton is .278/.353/.596 with 16 HRs and also a team leading 49 RBI. He leads the Gators with 57 strikeouts and has walked 18 times. HE is tied for second on their with 7 steals in 10 tries. Dalton is a sophomore right handed hitter from Spring Hill Tennessee.
On the season Florida is 55/76 in steals. That’s third most in attempts and successes in the league, overall. But unlike Missouri last weekend, Florida has their run game working in league play also. The Gators are 27/33 in steals in conference play (second best on both sides). In SEC games only, Florida is 4th in batting average (.001 above us), 2nd in slugging, 2nd in on base percentage, tops in runs scored, and 2nd in HRs. Florida is fielding .973 in league play, 8th overall, and .008 worse than us (we lead the SEC in in-conference fielding percentage at .981).
These guys are really good. That goes without saying. I’ve said a number of times that the team of theirs that won the national title last year wasn’t O’Sullivan’s best team in Gainesville. They were probably his 4th or 5th best team, really. And on paper, this year is better than what they had last season, too. Florida is a machine right now… they have been for awhile. They recruit at a very high level, but they also develop players when they got there.
Florida plays with an edge to them and has since O’Sullivan has been there. We always seem to have at least one “dust up” with them every season and they’re the only team for whom that is the case. They talk a lot on the field, they’ll throw at batters, all that kind of stuff. I expect this to be a chippy series. I’m also interested to see how Florida approaches it… they’ve been so good recently and we haven’t. While we’ve played them close a number of times, I’m sure that they don’t view us as being on their level or being a real serious threat to them. They can’t say that this year. Record wise and statistically, there isn’t a TON of difference between us and them. They’re a better team that we are on paper, but I’m telling you, the difference isn’t as big as you might think.
We’ve handled it so well this year, all season long. We hit one rough spot with the Charleston trip, but we overcame that. We lost the three series in a row there in April, but we managed to get one win each weekend, and put ourselves in position to get a few more. I don’t think their uniform is going to beat us, I really don’t… I think that we can play with these guys and I really believe that we’ll get a W this weekend.
Either way though, I stand by what I said earlier. This is going to be the toughest three game series we play all season. We can go to Omaha, go to the national title series, nothing is going to be tougher than this one. Tough doesn’t mean un-doable anymore, though.
