The Gators’ offensive deficiencies have been a significant trend in early 2022.
An opening weekend dud against the Liberty Flames cast doubt over the potential of this iteration of the Florida Gators to make a return trip to Omaha, Nebraska, for the College World Series.
However, a dominant showing against the Georgia State Panthers and two weekday wins have No. 15 Florida (6-2) feeling confident, and the bats buzzing.
The Gators earned two runs in the bottom of the first Friday without earning a single hit. Walks, wild pitches and sacrifice groundouts brought sophomore Colby Halter and junior Jud Fabian all the way around the diamond. Still, solo shots from sophomore Wyatt Langford and junior Josh Rivera would be the only remaining scoring plays of the night.
Saturday, the offense exploded.
After the Panthers took a brief 3-1 lead in the top of the third, the Gators responded with 12-straight runs. Every starting player for Florida earned at least one hit; even junior Kris Armstrong, who had yet to record a hit in 2022, found life with a solo home-run ball in the bottom of the sixth. The Gators were north of 10 runs for the first time all season, and help was coming from every branch of the lineup.
Florida opened Sunday’s matinee with three scoreless innings, seemingly dealing with a hangover from the Saturday-night victory, but the bats woke up in the fourth and never looked back.
Junior Kendrick Calilao got the fire sparked with the first RBI of the day, a single that brought Rivera home in the bottom of the fourth.
In the bottom of the fifth, Georgia State underwent the biggest scorching Atlanta has seen since Sherman’s march to the sea.
Seven consecutive runs were started with a two-run home run from Fabian, his first yard-shot of the year. The Panthers opted to bring Johnny Dow in to pitch, a move that would prove unwise. After promptly loading the bases off of a combination of walks and hits, freshman Matt Prevesk sent a sacrifice fly to deep left field, bringing sophomore Sterlin Thompson home.
Florida poured kerosene on the fire with four-straight two-out runs, the first coming on another RBI single from Calilao that Langford got home on. Then, freshman Deric Fabian singled to get junior BT Riopelle home. The scoring concluded with a double from Halter, bringing home both Calilao and Deric.
The massive offensive increase in the last two games of the series should be a promising sign for a team that began to face difficult questions regarding where the runs were coming from this year.
“It’s good to see a bunch of young guys put together some at-bats,” Riopelle said. “Some older guys struggled a little bit last week, but we moved forward and worked hard this week, and just got the ball rolling.”
Florida will clearly rely on ace sophomore Hunter Barco to be the anchor of the defense – that was shown Friday when the southpaw threw six near-perfect innings. After a leadoff triple turned into an RBI to open the top of the first, Barco allowed just three hits while garnering a career-high 12 strikeouts.
After Barco, the youth of the pitching staff is still visible. Freshman Philip Abner took his first career start on Saturday, allowing three runs in two innings. After the starter was benched, the rest of the relief bunkered down and kept runs off the board until the top of the ninth.
On Sunday, sophomore Timmy Manning got his second-consecutive weekend start. The performance was a mixed bag for the Pompano Beach, Florida, native; Manning pitched four innings, earning six K’s along the way, but allowed the lone run of the game. He allowed six hits and two walks, the only two of the day for any Gator pitcher.
After Manning, the relief was once again clutch. Nick Ficarrotta, Brandon Neely, Carsten Finnvold and Ryan Slater, all freshmen, allowed a combined zero runs and four hits through five innings.
The drop-off after Barco is anticipated, as fans can’t expect Florida to field any more than two-to-three truly elite arms, but the strength in relief pitching from freshman pitchers so far is promising. Finding who can step in and take command of the second and third weekend starting jobs is one of the last big questions on the roster.
The Gators travel to Jacksonville, Florida, for a rematch with the North Florida Ospreys on Tuesday; Florida came away victorious by a 3-1 score when the teams first faced off in a mid-week matchup.
Florida A&M lines up Wednesday night for a battle at Florida Ballpark, but the true measuring stick will come next weekend with a trip to Coral Gables, Florida, to face the No. 24 Miami Hurricanes, the first major test of the Gators’ young season.
Even after a disappointing series loss to Liberty, a victory or sweep over the ‘Canes would quickly shorten the memories of Gator fans.
Contact Carson Cashion at ccashion@alligator.com. Follow him on Twitter @CarsonCashion
Carson Cashion is a third-year sports journalism major at UF, and the sports editor at The Alligator for the 2022 summer semester. A native of Altamonte Springs, Carson spends his free time walking his dog, Baxter, and listening to good music. He is an avid Tennessee sports fan, and eagerly awaits watching one of his teams win a championship for the first time.
