Coming off a sweep of a top-25 team and with a weekend matchup with perennial powerhouse Miami looming, UF cannot overlook its weekday games sandwiched in between.
The No. 24 Gators (3-0) start a two-game series with Eastern Michigan tonight at 6:30 at McKethan Stadium.
Although the Eagles are coming off a losing season, they are not a team the now-ranked Gators can look past. Eastern Michigan proved that last year by making the NCAA Tournament after claiming the automatic bid awarded to the winner of the Mid-American Conference.
UF showed it was a team to be reckoned with this season with its first sweep of a ranked opponent in its opening weekend since it swept Miami in 1999, but there are still questions hanging over the Gators.
After weeks of speculation, UF coach Kevin O'Sullivan announced the starting pitchers for the weekday games - two more freshmen.
Justin Poovey, who received a medical redshirt last year after having Tommy John surgery on his right arm in fall 2007, will be on the mound tonight, and Anthony DeSclafani will start Wednesday's game. With their starts, the Gators' rotation will consist of four freshmen - Alex Panteliodis and Nick Maronde are the other two - and senior Patrick Keating.
O'Sullivan wants to get both of them experience and see how they perform under the lights.
"Poovey hasn't gotten out there yet, and he needs to get out there," O'Sullivan said. "DeSclafani is obviously really talented, and we need to get him out there and get some innings. It's good to get a lot of these guys out there."
Panteliodis and Maronde set the standard for freshmen hurlers this weekend with strong outings. Their performances will give Poovey and DeSclafani examples of how to pitch well in their first college starts.
DeSclafani already made his college debut, pitching an inning of relief Saturday, so some of those jitters that bugged Panteliodis and Maronde in their first career innings might not bother him.
Either way, they will have the benefit of having a confident team playing the field behind them and at the plate.
No player has more poise heading into the season than shortstop Mike Mooney.
In addition to hitting a walk-off single on Sunday, he recovered from a throwing error on the first play of Friday's game to make play after play, giving him six put-outs on Sunday and showing why his defense was so hyped in the preseason.
"We knew we were going to be tested and see how we stacked, see how we play once we got into a game, and this builds loads of confidence coming off sweeping a ranked team like that," Mooney said.
O'Sullivan will be quick to remind his team that they still can't reminisce about this past weekend, especially with another series against a tournament team coming up.
That doesn't mean he doesn't know what a sweep against a ranked team does for UF's tournament resume.
"It was just three games of 56," O'Sullivan said. "Our whole thing (Sunday) morning was if you want to put yourself in position to host regionals and super regionals, which gives you the best opportunity to get to Omaha, then you got to do some things like (sweep Louisville)."
