Despite getting off to a slow start this season, Florida junior Preston Tucker has been on a power surge as of late.
In his last two games, Tucker has piled up the stat sheet with 10 RBI from three homers.
His two-run homer and grand slam in the series final against Georgia were the driving force behind the Gators win. And his eighth inning grand slam against UCF nearly rallied the Gators from what was once an 8-0 deficit.
He’s one of the few players that haven’t seemed to be affected by the new bat switch this year in college baseball.
According to data researched by the NCAA earlier this month, home runs have gone down from 0.85 per game in 2010 to 0.47 per game this season.
This hasn’t been the case for Tucker, who currently leads the Gators with 51 hits and 8 home runs.
On Thursday, Tucker gave some insight on his recent performance, and didn’t hesitate to credit his teammates.
“I guess it’s just kind of finding the groove, mostly finding guys on base when I’m up there,” Tucker said. “I think the last two games we’ve had a ton of guys get on base. Fortunately, I’ve had a lot of guys get on base when I’m up there so I think everyone’s doing a great job of swinging the bats.”
According to Tucker, he hasn’t made any adjustments to his hitting.
“No, just trying to hit the ball hard. I think when you barrel balls up good things happen,” Tucker said. “I’ve hit a few hard ground balls too, I’ve hit a couple of line drives, a couple home runs, so you know, I’m doing a great job of just hitting balls hard and making good things happen right now.”
Florida head coach Kevin O’Sullivan praised his first baseman, crediting much of the offense’s success to him.
“I think he’s not missing his pitches and we need for him to go for us to go offensively, and he’s got three home runs the last three games. So it’s good to see him get hot, certainly down the stretch here.”
After an eight-game road trip in which the Gators went 4-4, Tucker reflected on being away from home and what his team learned from its lengthy road trip.
Tucker said one of those lessons was responding with wins after losing games to Mississippi State and Georgia.
“It’s always tough, you know, playing games on the road,” he said. “You know you’re not going to win them all. All you’ve got to do is battle.”
Gator Country reporter Daniel Jennings can be reached at Daniel@gatorcountry.com. You can also follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ DJenningsGC