At this point of the season, great teams take advantage of every mistake their opponents make, and UF did just that on Tuesday.
The Gators have created an unorthodox formula for winning baseball games: Rocky starting pitching plus strong long-relief outings plus explosive late-game hitting equals success.
UF coach Kevin O'Sullivan stresses the importance of pitching and fielding over and over again.
Walks and missed opportunities can be just as harmful to a team's chances of winning as errors and home runs.
While Preston Tucker has homered his way into the spotlight, another freshman has been key to the Gators' success at the plate.
Two Pigotts were better than one for the Gators on Wednesday night.
TALLAHASSEE - If being a senior leader means sacrificing yourself for the team, hitting a home run and remmbering to bring your jersey on road trips, then Teddy Foster wasn't just 2 for 3 in the batter's box on Tuesday.
TALLAHASSEE - Greg Larson got the nod to start over Justin Poovey and Patrick Keating, and he proved he deserved it.
The Gators are hoping to avoid a case of deja vu in Tallahassee tonight.
Perhaps the Gators were too patient in waiting until their third conference road matchup to secure a series win, but that virtue proved useful in the batter's box Sunday.
If earning the team's first Southeastern Conference road victory against Vanderbilt was learning to walk, then a series win in Auburn this weekend will be learning to run for UF.
The ball has been looking bigger to Preston Tucker lately, and he made the ball appear smaller to Central Florida's pitchers Tuesday.
When UF coach Kevin O'Sullivan and his players were asked which freshman impressed them the most during the preseason, one name surfaced time and again - Preston Tucker.
At the start of the season, the Gators had one sure thing in their starting rotation, and that was their ace, Patrick Keating.
A 14-0 run usually occurs on the basketball court, not the baseball field.
Only 16 teams get a chance to host an NCAA regional, so road play is crucial for a team's chance at a championship run.
JACKSONVILLE - The tying run was on second with one out and Daniel Pigott at the plate with a chance to win the game.
JACKSONVILLE - When the rain clouds settled over the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville, finalizing a 3-2 five-inning loss for UF at the hands of rival FSU, the Gators' recent propensity for slow starts became magnified as the last four innings were washed away.
It's hard to say which causes a bigger swing in momentum: winning a rivalry game or losing a rivalry game with a rematch scheduled just two weeks later.
The Gators have a case of the hitting bug.
Solutions by The State News
