Baseball players don’t get a Spring Break.
While their classmates will be flooding rundown watering holes in Key West or the Caribbean next week, the Gators will be hosting the likes of Florida Atlantic, Florida A&M and Florida Gulf Coast.
However, this week Florida will have one of the closest things there is to a bye week during a college baseball season.
For one of only two times this season, No. 1 UF is not scheduled to play a midweek game before it travels to Coral Gables on Friday for a showdown with No. 12 Miami.
“Not having any midweeks is great,” Gators coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “We’ve got quite a few guys with some hamstring (injuries) — little nagging stuff. I think this is as good a time to not have any midweeks as we possibly could have so we can get some guys back to 100 percent.”
Highlighting Florida’s early injury concerns are junior catcher Mike Zunino and freshman second baseman Casey Turgeon, two players whose bats have made a major impact in the early part of the season.
Zunino currently leads the team in batting average (.440) but tweaked his hamstring during a rundown in the eighth inning of Saturday night’s 5-1 victory over William & Mary and sat out Sunday’s series finale, the first time he has missed an entire game since his freshman year.
“He should be fine for the Miami series,” O’Sullivan said.
Turgeon was removed from Sunday’s game after lining a double to right in the fourth inning. O’Sullivan said he had been having some hamstring tightness and wanted to be cautious with the idea of him rounding third on a rainy day.
He has hit in all but one of Florida’s games this season and has not committed an error at second since the first ball he fielded on opening night.
A four-day break could also mean getting a player back into the lineup who has not yet seen the field this season.
O’Sullivan said last week that sophomore third baseman Zack Powers could return from a shoulder injury for the William & Mary series.
Offensively, the timing could be right as freshman Josh Tobias has started six games at third this year and batted .118 (2 for 17) to start his college career. He has also committed two of Florida’s five errors on the young season.
After Sunday, one of the most noteworthy storylines this week will be starting pitcher Karsten Whitson, who has struggled in his first two outings following a strong early spring.
“It’s just normal, early-season arm stuff,” O’Sullivan said. “I don’t see it being anything serious. When you have a special arm like that, you don’t want to take any chances.”
Whitson missed a majority of fall practice with a groin injury and lasted just 13 pitches and two-thirds of an inning in Sunday’s game against the Tribe.
O’Sullivan has said his arm just hasn’t bounced back as fast this season as some of the other pitchers, but UF’s coach added that there are no major worries.
“We just want all of our guys to feel like they’re 100 percent, and they will be,” O’Sullivan said.
William & Mary shortshop Ryan Williams (left) tags Florida catcher Mike Zunino (right) during a rundown in Saturday’s game, a 5-1 UF win. Zunino injured his hamstring during the play.
