The No.6 Florida Gators improved to 10-3 on the season after taking two of three games over No.22 Miami inside Condron Ballpark this weekend.
Gator Country provides four key takeaways from Florida’s pivotal series victory.
OFFENSIVE STAR POWER
Florida has dominated at the plate all season long, but the Gators proved that their offense is capable of beating up good pitching staffs.
The Hurricanes came into the weekend holding a team ERA of 3.49, which ranked 36th amongst division one teams. Miami also held the 6th best strikeout to walk ratio in the country (4.35 K/BB). This was no problem for Kevin O’Sullivan’s squad.
The Gators scored 30 runs on 35 hits and 10 home runs across 25 innings at the plate.
Wyatt Langford and Jac Caglianone are as good of hitters as you’ll find in college baseball. Cade Kurland and Josh Rivera have been extremely tough outs this season while slowing their ability to hit the long ball.
Florida’s first four batters have a combined 26 home runs this season, with all four having at least five long balls (Kurland, Langford, Caglianone, Rivera).
The Gators don’t have a weak spot in their batting order. 1-9 can hit and hit for power, regardless of who is playing.
BULLEN STRUGGLES
Florida’s bullpen struggles continued vs Miami as the Gators allowed 12 runs on 8 innings of relief throughout the series. That simply isn’t going to cut it moving forward.
Most of that damage was done during Saturday’s game as Florida’s bullpen blew a 6-3 lead when they took over in the seventh, allowing nine runs in just three innings.
The Gators bullpen has talent, they just aren’t pitching up to their potential at this point in the season.
Florida has two relievers that they trust in the backend of the bullpen with Cade Fisher and Brandon Neely.
Neely was roughed up during his only appearance of the series on Sunday, but he was battling an illness and was less than 100% on the mound.
Coach Sullivan is going to need to find more help if Florida wants to dominate the SEC. The Gators have plenty of options, somebody just needs to step up.
WEEKEND ROTATION
Florida’s weekend rotation is a lot better than it looks from a statistical standpoint.
Brandon Sproat, Hurston Waldrep, and Jac Caglianone combined for 31 strikeouts in 18 innings pitched this weekend, with each pitcher working six innings. Their swing and miss stuff helped the Gators get out of a number of jams this weekend.
The trio consistently works deep into games, despite the high strikeout numbers.
Sproat and Caglianone picked up wins this weekend while Waldrep was given a no decision because of the bullpen’s poor effort on Saturday evening. Waldrep set a career high in strikeouts with 14.
RECORD BREAKING ATTENDNACE
Gators fans showed up this weekend, setting a record-breaking attendance figure with 22,830 fans visiting Condron Family Ballpark for the three-game series vs Miami, the most in program history.
This is particularly impressive because Saturday’s contest had a two hour and 50-minute weather delay, with on and off rain for several hours.
Friday night’s attendance of 8,081 marked the second largest attendance inside Condron Family Ballpark history. Gator students also showed up, setting the record for largest student attendance in program history on Friday night.