The Florida Gators welcome the Missouri Tigers to Condron Family Ballpark for a three-game Southeastern Conference series beginning on Thursday. Thursday night’s series opener is set for 7 p.m. on SEC Network. Game two on Friday begins at 6:30 p.m. on SEC Network+ while Saturday’s finale will be carried on SEC Network at 5 p.m.
Sitting at 21-14 (1-11 SEC) on the season, it’s at the point where Florida not only needs to win series, but string together a few sweeps in order to get back in the mix for an NCAA Tournament bid. The good news is that the Gators won’t get a better chance than this weekend when they take on the SEC’s worst Missouri Tigers, who sit at 0-12 in conference play.
The Gators and Tigers both recorded sweeps in the most-recent home series at their respective stadiums. Florida enters with a 31-8 all-time record against Missouri including a dominant 19-1 mark in Gainesville, having claimed 15-straight home games in the series. The Gators are 26-7 overall vs. the Tigers under Head Coach Kevin O’Sullivan.
PITCHING MATCHUPS
Friday: RHP Liam Peterson (4-2, 3.63 ERA) vs LHP Brady Kehlenbrink (0-2, 9.64 ERA)
Saturday: RHP Aidan King (3-1, 3.12 ERA) vs RHP Kaden Jacobi (2-4, 9.93 ERA)
Sunday: TBD vs TBD
SCOUTING THE TIGERS
As you can imagine, there’s not a lot of pretty when you look at the Missouri baseball team. Their team ERA of 8.83 is one of the worst in all of college baseball, ranking 277th out of 299 teams. They walk 5.48 batters per game and allow over 12 hits per game, once again one of the worst statistics in all of college baseball. Missouri does strike out 9.2 batters per nine innings, which is their best quality on the mound.
The Tigers are better offensively, but not by much. Missouri holds a team batting average of .284, which ranks 121st in the country. They’ve launched 36 home runs, which ranks 102nd. The main issue offensively for Missouri is the swing and miss as they’ve struck out 301 times this season in 1,056 at bats, a strikeout percentage of 28.5% as a team. That statistic does not bode well for the Tigers as Florida is one of the better strikeout teams in the country, ranking 6th in the nation in strikeouts per nine with 11.8.
Infielder Jackson Lovich is far and away Missouri’s best player, sporting a .368 batting average with seven home runs on the season. The Tigers have used 20 different players on offense this season in an effort to find more production at the bottom of their lineup.
Thoughts heading into the series
Florida baseball is in a bad spot, there’s simply no other way to put it. However, the Gators are coming off their most complete game in quite a while vs FSU on Tuesday, where they took the season series with a 5-4 win in the rubber match. Hopefully this sparks the team throughout the back half of the season.
The Gators need to do everything they can to get a sweep this weekend, because winning the series won’t be enough. Every move made this weekend needs to reflect that. Then they have to turn around and take the series from Mississippi State, just to get back in the conversation. The Gators need to likely finish 12-6 in SEC play to make the NCAA Tournament.