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Thursday, March 28, 2024
<p>Bobby Poyner pitches during Florida’s 2-1 win against Arkansas on March 15, 2014 at McKethan Stadium.</p>

Bobby Poyner pitches during Florida’s 2-1 win against Arkansas on March 15, 2014 at McKethan Stadium.

March didn’t treat only the Florida men’s basketball program well.

Florida baseball, powered by a resurgent pitching staff, has won 13 of its past 16 games to vault itself into the national rankings for the first time in a month. No. 13 Florida (19-9, 6-3 Southeastern Conference) hosts Florida Atlantic (15-12, 4-8 Conference USA) tonight at 7 at McKethan Stadium.

For the first two weeks of 2014, the Gators opened with as many wins, six, as losses.

There was no rhyme or reason separating one game from the next. Then, coach Kevin O’Sullivan settled on a starting rotation and bullpen pattern that has reaped dividends.

“We really would not be where we are without them,” Taylor Gushue said of Florida’s pitching staff.

O’Sullivan inserted freshman Logan Shore into the weekend rotation before Florida faced Connecticut, naming the freshman the Friday-night starter. The cerebral right-hander from Coon Rapids, Minn., immediately energized the Gators.

Former pitcher and student assistant Keenan Kish welcomed Shore to collegiate baseball with a towel full of shaving cream to the face following Shore’s 6.1 inning win against Arkansas on March 14 that drew comparisons to former Gators right-hander Hudson Randall.

He tossed 8.2 innings in a 6-2 victory against then-No. 8 LSU on Saturday.

Eric Hanhold outdueled Tigers ace Aaron Nola in a walk-off Game 1 win just hours before Shore helped clinched the series in a rare doubleheader.

“The story too is he didn’t start opening weekend. You just work, work, work. You don’t put your head down,” O’Sullivan said of Shore after the SEC opener. “You don’t complain. You don’t make excuses. You just continue to work hard. He got his first start against UCF on Feb. 18 and next thing you know he’s pitching Friday nights.”

Florida started the season with a rotation of Bobby Poyner, Brett Morales and Karsten Whitson. Poyner, the opening-day starter, is now a bullpen mainstay.

Whitson (1-0, 5.65) will make his first appearance in two weeks and his first start in almost a month on Tuesday night, and Morales hasn’t seen consistent innings since beginning his college career as the No. 2 starter.

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Eleven of these past 16 games have come at home. Florida dropped its only series during the streak against Texas A&M when it lost Games 2 and 3 by one run each.

Florida’s weekend starters have averaged 4.35 innings per games, with Shore leading the team at 6.58. Its bullpen has depended on arms like Poyner, Aaron Rhodes and Danny Young for long-relief appearances.

Poyner made an appearance in six straight games in a week between the UConn and Arkansas series. Sometimes, he faced a single batter, like he did on March 12, while other times he threw multiple innings.

He started the series finale in College Station, Texas, and worked 4.2 innings.

Rhodes has pitched two-plus innings in five of his last eight appearances. Conversely, the Gators’ hitting improved from .251 before facing Southern Mississippi on March 4 in Pensacola to .262 heading into Tuesday night.

Help has even come from unlikely sources.

Left-handed freshman Kirby Snead, an Alachua native whose fastball doesn’t break 90 mph, had never pitched more than an inning before Sunday’s game against LSU but tossed 4.2 innings of scoreless relief in UF’s 11-7 win.

O’Sullivan continues to say — rightly so — that the hitting is coming around, but there’s no denying what has carried Florida from a fringe-.500 club to one that sets up nicely in a pitching-dominated conference.

“When you pitch as well as we have and play good defense, you just need some timely hits,” O’Sullivan said Saturday. “I talk to the other coaches in this league and everybody is talking about how good the pitching is in this league, and the margin for error is very small.”

Follow Adam Pincus on Twitter @adamDpincus

Bobby Poyner pitches during Florida’s 2-1 win against Arkansas on March 15, 2014 at McKethan Stadium.

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