The No.7 Florida Gators swept Charleston Southern to open the 2023 college baseball season. Kevin O’Sullivan’s squad dominated in all three phases of the game, outscoring the Bucs 37-5 in the three-game series.
Gator Country provides five key takeaways from the Gators’ opening series sweep inside Condron Family Ballpark.
CLUTCH HITTING
Florida put on an offensive clinic last weekend, slashing .358/.475/.589 as a team.
Most of the damage was done with two outs as the Gators hit .375 and drove in a combined 19 runs with two gone in the inning.
The Gators hit .396 with runners on base and a whopping .476 with runners in scoring position. The more runners Florida got on base, the stronger they became.
Charleston Southern gave Florida plenty of second chances, and the Gators made them pay.
Two-out and situational hitting are essential qualities of a good college baseball team, and Florida displayed their ability to do both during the opening series.
23 INNINGS
The new SEC 10-run rule for conference games is also utilized in non-conference games if the opposing teams coach agrees to it.
This was the case for Florida this weekend as the Gators only played 23 innings of baseball instead of the normal 27 for a three-game series. This may not seem like a huge deal, but Florida missed out on four innings of baseball in the first weekend, which could / should have resulted in four different pitchers getting an inning of work in from the bullpen and plenty of at bats for reserve players.
It’s the blowout games that give a chance for younger players to play in a live game against opposing teams, which is great for their development.
It’s going to be interesting to see which teams are willing to play full nine inning games against the Gators this season.
ELITE DEFENSE
The Gators were perfect defensively against Charleston Southern, allowing zero errors across 23 innings, which is not an easy task to start the season.
Colby Halter didn’t bring his best bat to the plate last weekend but was dominant at the hot corner for the Gators. The 6-1, 205-pound infielder has plenty of experience at 2nd base throughout his time at Florida but looks much more comfortable at third base for the Gators. Halter put his range and arm strength on display last weekend, making two big-league plays on bunts from the Bucs.
Josh Rivera has significantly improved defensively since his freshman season. Rivera looks more comfortable in his role and is a great leader to have at the shortstop position.
Florida saw great work from BT Riopelle and Luke Heyman behind the plate. Riopelle may not be the best defensive catcher on the roster, but his leadership proved valuable this weekend.
Freshman Luke Heyman is likely the best defensive catcher on the Gators, if he can keep swinging the bat at a high level, it’s going to be awfully hard for coach Sullivan to leave him out of the lineup.
BT Riopelle proved he can provide value at 1st base, making several challenging plays on Sunday afternoon including a nice pick on a low throw from Rivera.
THROWING STRIKES
Brandon Sproat struggled with his command on Friday night, giving away 5 free passes to Buccaneer batters, resulting in three earned runs on zero hits. Florida’s strike percentage on Friday night was 60%, which isn’t terrible, but not as high as you would like it to be.
The Gators bounced back nicely on Saturday and Sunday, with strike percentages of 71 and 70.4, totaling just four free passes in the final two games of the series.
Florida struggled with command last season at times, so it was nice to see a collective effort to throw strikes in the opening series.
JAC CAGLIANONE
There was plenty of uncertainty on who the Gators’ Sunday starter would be going into the 2023 season, but it’s safe to say that coach Sullivan made the right choice for the first Sunday.
Caglianone was the most dominant pitcher of the entire weekend, posting a line of 6.2 innings, two hits, one walk, and nine strikeouts, the most from a Gators’ pitching debut since 2011.
The hard throwing left hander pounded the strike zone and worked quickly, totaling just 79 pitches in 6.2 innings.
If Caglianone can consistently bring that kind of effort into Sunday, Florida will be sitting in a really good spot with their weekend rotation.
It’s going to be critical to monitor Caglianone as the season progresses as he’s expected to hit while he pitches at some point this year. Caglianone does not believe he will be negatively affected by pitching and hitting at the same time.