UF coach Kevin O'Sullivan stresses the importance of pitching and fielding over and over again.
For most of the season, his team's pitching has been rocky and the defense awful.
While the pitching still remains questionable, the fielding is finally coming around.
The improved defensive play has been credited to the return of shortstop Mike Mooney from injury. He fouled a ball off his left foot against Tennessee on March 21 and missed 10 games.
When UF (26-14) takes on Florida Gulf Coast tonight at 7 in Fort Myers, Mooney will take his spot at shortstop, bolstering a strong Gators defense.
"Moving Josh (Adams) to second and getting Mooney back has really helped our infield," O'Sullivan said. "It has solidified things defensively for us."
Mooney transferred to UF from Palm Beach Community College with hype surrounding his defense, but his early play on the field did not back up his glove's reputation.
In the first seven games of the season, Mooney committed three errors.
Unhappy with Mooney's defense and leadership at short, O'Sullivan moved him to third and Adams to shortstop.
Adams didn't fare much better, making six errors in 17 games at the position.
The poor performance by Adams, the lack of production from either Jerico Weitzel or Clayton Pisani at second and the emergence of Preston Tucker at first gave the infield a new look upon Mooney's return.
Tucker's success made it more sensible to move Brandon McArthur to third base, clearing the way for Adams to switch to second, where he was voted to the All-Southeastern Conference Team last season, and opening up the shortstop spot for Mooney.
The Gators have used that infield in every game since Mooney returned against Bethune-Cookman on April 7.
Mooney got off to rough start, committing two errors in that game, but in the nine games since, he has only made one blunder.
The errors for the defensive unit as a whole are down. In the last eight games, UF has only made three errors, compared to 12 in the eight games prior.
Even with the recent success, Mooney sees the season as a letdown for him defensively, but he is looking for the rest of the season to define him.
"I missed a couple, then it got in my head, and it took me awhile to get out of it," Mooney said. "I'm figuring it out, and I have more errors than I would like to have. As long as I don't make any more the rest of the way then it's alright."
It's not just his glove that has kept him in the lineup. Since his return, Mooney has been giving opposing pitchers all sorts of trouble.
In the last 10 games, he has hit .385 and scored 8 runs while batting last in the order.
While his batting average has been impressive, his on-base percentage since coming back has been even better. With nine walks and two hit-by-pitches, the 5-foot-8 shortstop's OBP across those 10 games is at a staggering .553, compared to a season-long team average of .391.
"I do like to work the count, and it is what I'm good at with my small strike zone," Mooney said.
