Etched across the orange bracelet that Logan Shore wears on his wrist are five white letters: grind.
On Wednesday, as the sophomore fielded questions about Florida’s previous win, a 9-7 road upset over Vanderbilt, the word seemed to carry more weight than usual.
"I think that’s kind of what we’ve been looking for all year from our guys," Shore said of the victory.
It’s a fitting term for this year’s Florida baseball team, which has overcome injuries, inconsistencies and inexperience to reach its current position: two games behind the Southeastern Conference’s top spot with one series remaining.
No. 6 Florida (38-14, 17-10 SEC) will face Auburn (33-20, 12-15 SEC) at 7 p.m., beginning a three-game series with a Tiger team that sits 7.5 games behind first place in the SEC West. A sweep is almost necessary if UF wants a chance at claiming the SEC regular season title.
"Not every season is going to go perfect. There’s gonna be a lot of ups and downs," coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. "But if you told me every year here you would have three games left and you’re still in the hunt, I’d take that every year."
The same can be said of his players, whose confidence has risen after UF took two out of three games against Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tennessee, last weekend. In Game 3, the Gators rallied from a three-run deficit to defeat the No. 7 Commodores in 10 innings.
"It really told us a lot about our team, and that we can never give up and we never do," senior third baseman Josh Tobias said. "We’re never out of any of the games. And when we kept fighting in that last game, it showed some moxie and competitiveness that we knew we always had. It was good to show it on the field."
At times this season, however, parts of Florida’s team didn’t show it. Its offense was often counted upon to pick up its pitching staff, and it did.
So far, the Gators are 34-2 when they outhit their opponents and 24-5 when they hit a home run.
But in the past month, Florida’s pitchers have gone 10-4, and its bullpen is rounding out the season with a 17-2 record, a 2.98 ERA and 11 saves. Entering this weekend, UF’s pitching staff has nearly tripled its strikeouts (412) since recording 148 midway through the season.
"I think, obviously, you wanna be playing your best baseball at the end of the year," O’Sullivan said. "You can look at our season and how it’s gone — we’ve won some series and we’ve lost some series.
"But to sit here in the last weekend and have all our goals still in front of us and to still be relevant in terms of the SEC, I’m pleased."
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Josh Tobias bats during Florida's 14-8 win against Florida State on March 17 at McKethan Stadium.
