Florida’s baseball roster has lost three players to the NCAA transfer portal over the past few weeks.
Junior Santino Miozzi, sophomore Justin Alintoff and freshman Roberto Peña have all chosen to explore their options outside of the baseball program at UF.
Miozzi and Alintoff are familiar with the transfer process, as both came from community colleges before enrolling at Florida.
Miozzi, a 6-foot-2, 215-pound catcher from Orlando transferred to UF from Florida Southwestern Community College in 2017. He played sparingly for the Gators this season, appearing in 18 games and batting .152 with one home run and four RBIs.
Alintoff committed to the Gators in March 2018 after spending a season at Indian River State College, where he appeared in 13 games, compiling 77 strikeouts and a 4.11 ERA in 57 innings.
The Jupiter, Florida, native appeared in 16 games from the bullpen for Florida in 2019, striking out 24 and going 1-0 with a 4.30 ERA. His best outing came on March 5 against Florida Gulf Coast where he pitched three innings, giving up no earned runs and just one hit.
Peña was the only one who came to Florida as a freshman right out of high school.
The Venezuela native, who attended Calvary Christian Academy in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, committed to the Gators back in July 2016. He posted on Twitter his plans to transfer last week.
“First of all, I want to thank all my teammates and fans for making my freshman year an unforgettable one,” Peña said. “But I will not be returning to Gainesville and will open my recruitment process.”
The 6-foot-2, 215-pound infielder played in just 13 games and started four. He hit .227 with one home run and two RBIs.
Florida’s 2019 roster has experienced a lot of turnover recently with the addition of these transfer announcements on top of last week’s MLB Draft.
UF’s third-ranked 2019 recruiting class, however, should help revamp the 2020 roster and replace some of what the team has lost.
Follow Evan Lepak on Twitter @evanmplepak. Contact him at elepak@alligator.org.
Justin Alintoff is perhaps the most notable player transferring from Florida. The sophomore had a 4.30 ERA and 24 strikeouts in 29.1 innings this year.
