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Friday, March 29, 2024

Series preview: Florida hosts Liberty to open the season

Gator baseball kicks off their season as they look to redeem themselves following a disastrous 2021

<p>The Florida baseball team stands in the dugout during a game against Jacksonville on March 14, 2021. The Gators host the LSU Tigers for a three-game slate</p>

The Florida baseball team stands in the dugout during a game against Jacksonville on March 14, 2021. The Gators host the LSU Tigers for a three-game slate

After an extremely disappointing end to 2021, Florida Gator baseball begins their season Friday with renewed hope and lower expectations.

UF entered last season as the consensus No. 1 team in the country. The situation is much different in 2022, as a young roster brings promise for the future, but uncertainty for the present. 

One thing is for certain about this year’s installment of the Florida Gators: they are hungry. The Gators are out to prove that last year was an anomaly, and the goal remains to reach the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska. 

The first step in getting there comes this weekend when the Gators host the Liberty Flames for a three-game series at Florida Ballpark. 

There are plenty of questions about how Florida’s lineup will look that will be answered this weekend.

The first is how the weekend rotation will fill out. Sophomore Hunter Barco is the sure-fire ace; he will get the ball every Friday night barring injury or struggles. The 6-foot-4-inch southpaw enters the season ranked as the 53rd overall prospect in the 2022 MLB Draft according to MLB Pipeline.

Barco struggled at times in 2021, posting a 4.01 ERA, but showed his potential by registering 94 strikeouts in 83 innings across 16 starts.

The other spot in the weekend rotation should be locked up by sophomore Brandon Sproat.

The 6-foot-3-inch righty has huge potential — ranked 98th according to Pipeline — but struggled with command in 2021. Sproat posted a 6.65 ERA and walked 15 batters in 21.2 innings over 16 appearances.

Beyond Barco and Sproat, there are a lot of unknowns. The Gators have a plethora of young arms from their recruiting class, but nobody really knows how ready they are. 

Head coach Kevin O’Sullivan met with the media Tuesday and it seems the leader in the clubhouse is freshman left-hander Pierce Coppola. 

“He had one outing where he pitched three innings and struck out all nine,” O’Sullivan said. “I don’t know if I’ve seen that before.”

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O’Sullivan praised Coppola and compared him to Gators legend AJ Puk. Coppola stands 6-foot-8-inches and weighs in at 215 pounds. His lanky frame creates a funky look that makes it difficult on hitters. 

“For being that big his coordination, his delivery and his ability to repeat his delivery at such a young age is quite remarkable,” O’Sullivan said. “He throws a ton of strikes, he’s got a slider that’s improved, he’s worked on a straight change since the fall.”

The Gators head coach said he has a “pretty good idea” of what the rotation will look like, but a final decision would be made after Tuesday’s practice.

“Whoever we do throw out there for the first three games are gonna be guys that have earned it,” O’Sullivan said.

O’Sullivan answered one major lineup question Tuesday when he announced that sophomore Wyatt Langford will be in left field on opening night. Langford beat out multiple extremely talented freshmen to fill the void left by former Gator Jacob Young.

“[Langford’s] been swinging the bat really good, he’s improved defensively in the outfield,” O’Sullivan said. “He’s still got a ways to go but you hide him down in the bottom half of the order, he’s got a chance to really do some damage.” 

Sully hinted that he would like to give multiple guys a look throughout the season and the young guys are ready to make an impact. It would not be surprising to see multiple starters in left field this coming weekend and throughout the early part of the season. 

However, he did announce that the Gators will be without one of those freshmen outfielders for an unknown period of time. Michael Robertson recently re-aggravated a hamstring injury that he had been dealing with since the fall and will not be available to start the year.

The infield is as solid as it gets for Florida. 

Juniors Kendrick Calilao and Kris Armstrong will split time at first base and designated hitter, sophomores Colby Halter and Josh Rivera will be double-play partners at second and shortstop, respectively. Freshman Deric Fabian — Jud’s little brother — will command the hot corner.

Catcher is still a bit of a mystery with three solid options battling it out to take the reins behind the plate. However, experience is likely to reign supreme early with sophomore Mac Guscette and Coastal Carolina transfer BT Riopelle expected to get the majority of starts. 

However, nobody should be surprised if they see freshman standout Rene Lastres get some playing time early in the year. O’Sullivan said the Gators will use at least two catchers this weekend.

With Florida having so many options to mix and match at different positions, look for a lot of different lineup combinations early in the season. O’Sullivan will certainly be looking to use these early season games to figure out what his optimal lineup is going to look like come SEC play.

While the roster looks young, the Gators do return six players who were key parts of the 2021 team. The veterans will be a huge benefit to the team as they look to get off to a good start in 2022, something they did not do last year.

On the other end, Liberty enters on the heels of a tremendous season. 

The Flames won the Atlantic Sun Conference regular-season and tournament titles and two regional games. They eventually bowed out after two losses to Tennessee in the Knoxville Regional. 

Liberty returns five of nine starters from last season, most notably redshirt senior Aaron Anderson, who is coming off a fantastic 2021. Anderson put together a stunning slash line of .375/.460/.567 and added 33 walks compared to just 38 strikeouts. 

The Flames also retain their top power-hitter, redshirt senior Brady Gulakowski, who hit 10 home runs last season. They got on base at a .373 clip as a team, so they are experienced and dangerous.

Sophomore Trey Gibson leads Liberty on the mound. He posted an impressive 3.32 ERA and 70 strikeouts in 65 innings across 13 starts last season. Gibson will likely match up with Barco Friday night. 

Liberty presents a stiff challenge to start the season for Florida and cannot be overlooked. It will be key for the Gators to start the season off with a series win as they try and erase the sour taste left by last season. 

It all begins Friday at 7 p.m. in Florida Ballpark, followed by Saturday’s afternoon 4 p.m. start and Sunday’s finale at noon. The action can be streamed on SEC Network+. 

Contact Ethan Budowsky at ebudowsky@alligator.org. Follow him on Twitter at @ethanbudowsky.




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