The Gators won twice as many games as they lost in the last month, but it has been painful.
Two starting pitchers were injured on the mound. A pair of relievers suffered tendinitis. The third baseman couldn’t even hold a bat.
And then there was right fielder Kamm Washington, who suffered a season-ending hamstring tear in his right leg after diving into a fence on Saturday. The team trainer described the collision as “the closest thing to a car accident that we can simulate.”
Time will heal those wounds, but No. 7 Florida (23-9, 8-4 Southeastern Conference) is impatient. The Gators want a regular-season SEC championship, meaning a thin UF team hopes to not waver tonight on the road at 7 against Kentucky (21-12, 4-8 SEC).
“No one’s going to feel sorry for us,” UF coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “We’ve got to figure it out, and we’ve got to play our best baseball in the next couple weeks. It is what it is, and we’ve got to battle through it.”
UF received some good news this week with the return of third baseman Bryson Smith, who has not played since dislocating his left index finger while diving into first base against Mississippi State on March 20.
Smith’s finger snapped backwards to form a 90-degree angle and looked like a reverse L. Florida trainer John Barrett said only rest could heal the injury.
While waiting to recover, Smith said he hit off a tee and unsuccessfully tried catching fly balls with a left-handed glove.
“It’s been a struggle,” Smith said. “I’ve never sat out this long for an injury during a season.”
Smith’s finger healed enough for him to field ground balls on Monday, and he started hitting against a pitching machine Tuesday. Smith said he was relieved to be back on the field, but his footwork was awkward and his defense was porous this week.
“You can’t really take off three weeks in baseball and expect to be right back out in perfect shape,” he said.
But just getting Smith on the field is a relief for Barrett. The trainer said most of UF’s injured players will be healthy again soon, but this has been his busiest season.
“Maybe we were just lucky in the past,” Barrett said. “The baseball gods were good to us, but we’ve got some challenges now.”
With injuries to starting pitchers Tommy Toledo (facial fractures) and Brian Johnson (strained back muscle), UF does not have a Sunday starter this week. O’Sullivan said he will pick a pitcher after Saturday’s game, when he can look at his roster and see who is still fresh.
But the most important member of the team right now is Barrett, who said he is rehabbing more players than any trainer in the SEC.
“I’ve got the most chips in this poker game,” he said.
The majority of UF’s injuries are not serious, Barrett said, so O’Sullivan is optimistic that his team can be back to full strength in about a month, when the stakes rise.
“If we can weather the storm,” O’Sullivan said, “I think we can be a team that hopefully nobody wants to play against come regional time.”
