For the first time all season, Tommy Toledo will be starting the weekend instead of ending it.
Toledo (4-4, 3.40 ERA), who began the year as the Gators' Sunday starter, took two weeks off from starting after collecting his third loss in a row.
Friday he will move back into the starting rotation as the Gators (27-16, 12-9 Southeastern Conference) take on the Gamecocks (31-14, 11-10 SEC) in Columbia, S.C.
"He's had a very good year for us," UF coach Kevin O'Sullivan said of Toledo in Thursday's SEC baseball teleconference. "He got a little bit tired there toward the middle of the year, which is understandable."
O'Sullivan also said that Toledo is putting on weight and getting stronger as the year progresses, and he added Toledo will be a fantastic major-league prospect in the future.
"The key with Tommy is just getting stronger and just being able to maintain his stuff over a longer period of time," O'Sullivan said.
The Gators will put Stephen Locke (3-2, 3.21 ERA) on the mound Saturday and end the series with ace Patrick Keating (8-0, 2.69).
The Gamecocks are a familiar foe for O'Sullivan. During his nine years as Clemson's pitching coach, he faced South Carolina every season as Clemson's archrival.
"Their lineup is probably second to none in our league," O'Sullivan said. "It's a dangerous lineup, top to bottom. They've got guys that drive the ball out of the ballpark."
With the second through sixth teams in the SEC Eastern Division all one game apart, every weekend series is important with bids to the SEC Tournament in Hoover, Ala., to lock up.
"We've certainly got our hands full, we know that," O'Sullivan said.
