For the Gators, every fall scrimmage began the same way: bases loaded, no outs, a bitter memory for everyone who was wearing orange and blue on June 27, 2011.
“It makes you focus more, just how much small details can actually have a big impact on the game,” junior catcher Mike Zunino said. “It’s unfortunate it ended up that way, but it taught us a lesson.”
Against South Carolina in Game 1 of last season’s College World Series finals, Florida was living that exact scenario in the bottom of the ninth. The frame closed with Tyler Thompson grounding into a fielder’s choice, Daniel Pigott grounding into a 4-2-3 double play and no runs. South Carolina won the game in 11 innings en route to an eventual sweep.
Tonight at 7, the No. 1 Gators (2-1) will continue to fight an ongoing battle to make that painful Omaha memory fade away as they take on Bethune-Cookman (2-1) at McKethan Stadium.
It’s an effort that has already proven to be difficult. Despite taking two out of three from No. 25 Cal State Fullerton over the weekend, there was an air of disappointment after Sunday’s loss and players were largely focused on issues in manufacturing runs.
“It’s something we didn’t do well this weekend,” Pigott said. “We’ve got to come out and work on it and get better. We’ll do that.”
Eerie memories of that Monday night at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha peeked through in Sunday’s 8-5 loss when the Gators went 2 for 12 with runners in scoring position. After getting runners on second and third with no outs in the third inning, the Gators responded with two infield flies from Vickash Ramjit and Josh Tobias and a strikeout by Thompson.
In the fifth, Preston Tucker reached on a leadoff double before watching Zunino strike out looking and Austin Maddox and Ramjit fly out to center field.
O’Sullivan had a tough time properly describing his team’s troubles.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I saw our hitters swinging the bat really, really well against our own pitching for a long time here. In my mind, we’re a much better offense than we showed this weekend.”
Florida carries one of the nation’s most powerful lineups but even that tended to be untimely against Fullerton. The three home runs tallied by UF hitters (two for Tucker, one for freshman catcher Taylor Gushue) were all of the solo variety, even leading Tucker to downplay a Sunday in which he went 3 for 4 with a homer and a walk.
“Unfortunately, the times I got hits there was nobody on base,” he said. “The at-bat I made early that I made an out on, there were two guys on. I could have drove them in.”
Such is life on a team that features some of the best talent in the country and will be a national championship favorite all season barring a major shakeup. In order to avoid complacency, issues like scoring runners earlier in counts will be brought to the forefront so any possible excuses are ironed out when the postseason arrives.
“We realized that some of the teams that did do the best jobs of [manufacturing runs in 2011] were some of the best teams,” Tucker said. “Just doing the small things right was one thing we weren’t great at, and that’s one thing we’re harping on in the fall and the spring.”
Florida senior Preston Tucker said the team realizes it needs to get better at manufacturing runs, a problem that cost the Gators last year.
