At this point in the season, I expected to endorse the Florida baseball team’s candidacy for being one of the favorites to come out of the SEC. But after 39 games, it’s rather difficult to draw a conclusion.
Therefore, I'll take a look at the good, the bad and the ugly of UF’s season.
The Good
Offensively, the Gators have improved since their College World Series run last season. Florida’s .289 team batting average is .015 points higher than last season and is the fifth-best mark in the SEC.
Much was said in the preseason about how young UF is, but the underclassmen have carried the team offensively.
Sophomore Brady McConnell leads the team with a .373 batting average, 56 hits (second-most in the SEC) and 35 runs. Freshman Jacob Young beat out senior Blake Reese for the starting job at second base and has excelled offensively, hitting .348, the second-best average on the team among starters. Kendrick Calilao, another freshman, leads the team with 37 RBIs.
The Gators have also had two 20-run outbursts this season and have scored 10 or more runs nine times. UF doesn’t have nearly the power it had last year, but it is still tied for fourth in the SEC in home runs and, as of April 10, was a top-25 scoring offense.
The Bad
Unfortunately for Florida, its dominance at the plate has not carried over to its performance on defense. Pitching and fielding have long been cornerstones of coach Kevin O’Sullivan’s teams at UF, but this season, the Gators have one of the worst pitching staffs in the conference, their fielding percentage has dropped, and the number of errors they commit has risen.
The lack of a true ace on the mound has derailed the pitching rotation. Last year, Florida had two aces. Now it is stuck supplanting frequent subpar weekend starts with a freshmen-dominated bullpen. UF has been outmatched on the mound in virtually every conference series this season. A good offense can only take you so far, especially in the SEC.
The Ugly
Things aren’t going to get much easier for the Gators. They desperately need to string together a series of wins in the SEC in order to remain competitive in conference.
According to WarrenNolan.com, UF has played the ninth-hardest schedule in the nation to date. That same model predicts Florida to finish the season with the seventh-most difficult schedule (as of April 18).
Florida had a tough draw to begin conference play, hosting Mississippi State and playing Vanderbilt on the road, both top-10 teams. But it still has two tough series to play: at No. 14 LSU this weekend and at No. 5 Georgia in two weeks. Judging by UF’s performance against ranked opponents (2-8) and its dismal play on the road (2-7), it could drop both.
Poor pitching and fielding, a horrendous road record and a slew of top-10 opponents have plagued the Gators. But the main issue for this team has been consistency.
Florida has shown signs of being a contender, but at the same time, it also justified its first departure from the top 25 in 76 weeks.
At this point, it’s just a matter of what team shows up in late May and, potentially, into June.
Kyle Wood is a sports writer for The Alligator. Follow him on Twitter @Kkylewood or contact him at kwood@alligator.org.
Sophomore Brady McConnell leads the Gators with a .373 batting average, 56 hits (second-most in the SEC) and 35 runs.
