Florida baseball returns home to take on SEC West leader

Austin Maddox and the Florida baseball team set a goal for the 2011 campaign before Opening Day.

“When we started the season, one of our goals was to win another SEC championship, and I feel like that goal’s in reach, we just have to play well these next few weekends,” Florida’s sophomore third baseman/pitcher said before practice Thursday morning at McKethan Stadium.

The No. 5-ranked Gators (28-10/ 11-4 SEC) are going to have to be more consistent if they want to achieve that goal this year.

The team returned home after breaking even with four wins and four loses in the their recent road trip, which ended in a 8-6 loss at the hands of the University of Central Florida on Wednesday.

The Gators went scoreless in the first seven innings against the Knights until the bats started cracking in the top of the 8th inning to score six runs, but they couldn’t produce anymore hits and left Orlando without a win.

UF pitcher Hudson Randall spoke about the team’s struggles during the road trip, and whether or not they would carry over to this weekend.

“Anybody can beat anybody any day of the week, we just got to learn how to handle it the right way, and come out here and prove ourselves again,” Randall said.

Florida junior Preston Tucker also understands that the team needs to improve in certain areas.

“We have struggled getting runs early in the ball game, so we find ourselves down late in the ball game, than we start swinging the bats but it’s too late,” Tucker said. “What we need to a better job of is getting guys on base early in the ball game and scoring them.”

Florida will face another big test this weekend as they take on the West Division leading Alabama Crimson Tide (25-15/ 8-7 SEC).  The Gators will be looking for some sort of revenge against a Tide team that knocked them out of the SEC Tournament last year. Alabama enters Gainesville with an almost identical squad from 2010.

UF head coach Kevin O’Sullivan knows winning this weekend’s series will be no easy task.

“They (Alabama) have two really good starters in (Nathan) Kilcrease and (Adam) Morgan,” O’Sullivan said. “Morgan beat us last year in the SEC tournament and Kilcrease is a really good competitor.

“Their coaches do a great job, they’ll be ready to play, and we’re going to have to be on our A-game if we want to be successful,there’s no question.”

The first game of the series starts at 7 p.m. on Friday night and will feature a pitching matchup of Florida’s sophomore right-hander, Randall (6-1, 1.70 ERA), against Alabama senior Kilcrease (5-2, 2.62).  The Gators bested Kilcrease in last year’s matchup, but that doesn’t mean they’re taking him lightly this season.

“Kilcrease is one of the top pitchers in the SEC, he battles as well as anyone,” Tucker said. “We faced him last year and he did a great job, but we’re excited to play at home and we look forward to jumping on him early.”

Besides their bats, the Gators will also be relying on a strong outing from Randall to open the series.  Randall was nothing but smiles as he addressed the media.

“I’m excited to get back out here (McKethan Stadium) on Friday,” Randall said. “I had a good game against Alabama last year, they didn’t lose many people, and they have (Taylor) Dugas who’s one of the best hitters in the SEC in my opinion; so yeah I’m excited to get out here and start things off on the right foot, and get a W.”

The Gators will still be without injured freshman third baseman Zack Powers who is having surgery for an MCL injury suffered while sliding into second base against Georgia last weekend. Powers could be out anywhere from 4 weeks to 5 months, according to O’Sullivan. Details on how many more games Powers will miss will be unknown until after his operation on Friday.

As for the overall feeling on the season thus far, the coaching staff and players feel like they’ve progressed and become a better team, and are happy with that growth.

“We’re swinging the bats really well as of late, we’ve been getting more timely hits, and we haven’t been leaving as many guys stranded, I feel much better about our offense now than I did three weeks ago,” O’Sullivan said.

Randall supported his coach’s comments on playing better ball.

“Leadership wasn’t prevalent at the beginning of the season, but as the season has continued on we’ve found some leaders, and we’re all coming together, helping each other out, and picking each other up,” Randall said. “Things are turning around for us because we have a good leadership base now; we’re just looking forward to finishing the rest of the season.”

UF sophomore catcher Mike Zunino has stepped up as a team leader, and says the mindset in the dugout is clear.

“We just have to go out and play well and execute what we need to do,” Zunino said.

A pair of left-handers will square off for Saturday’s game, which begins at 6 p.m. and will be nationally broadcast on ESPN2. Florida will start sophomore Brian Johnson (5-1, 2.42) against Alabama junior Adam Morgan (4-3, 4.12). The Gators will use freshman Karsten Whitson (4-0, 2.38 ERA) for Sunday’s 1 p.m. start against a Crimson Tide pitcher to be announced.

Now that the Gators have the right attitude entering the last few weeks of the season, it’s only a matter of preforming up to expectations. If the leadership is effective, hitting becomes more consistent and pitching staff performs to its potential, Gators fans should like the team’s chances moving forward.  However, this weekend against Alabama could be an indicator of not only how far the Gators have come this season, but how far they will go.

Tucker said the team’s short-term goals are as clear as the preseason goal of winning a conference championship.

“We’re looking to take this series,” Tucker said. “That’s the bottom line.”