Florida catcher Luke Heyman has been named the SEC Co-Player of the Week while right-handed pitcher Liam Peterson is the SEC Freshman of the Week, as announced by the conference office on Monday.
For Heyman, Monday’s announcement marks his first-career weekly SEC honor. This is the second Freshman of the Week accolade for Peterson, who was previously tabbed the conference’s top rookie on Feb. 26.
Both players were instrumental in Florida’s series victory at No. 9 Georgia in the regular-season finale. Heyman did the heavy lifting for the UF offense, leading the SEC with 10 RBI and belting three home runs. The Gators’ catcher finished 5-for-15 (.333/.333/1.000) and also recorded one double, five runs scored and 15 total bases. He swatted two home runs in game one at Georgia, one in game two and drove in four runs in the series finale, all of which came in Florida’s 12 run 4th inning, the most in the Kevin O’Sullivan era. Heyman has homered five times in Florida’s last five games while recording three multi-hit games in that span.
As for Peterson, the freshman fired 5 1/3 innings of three-run ball in the game-two victory over the Bulldogs. He allowed just five hits and two walks while striking out four batters. He limited Georgia to a .250 batting average. Peterson has now strung together five stellar appearances (four starts) dating back to April 19 and leads the Orange & Blue with a 2.33 ERA and .211 batting average against in 19 1/3 frames during that span.
“I think that’s where the biggest improvement he’s made over the last month or so, slow the game down when he has to get in the stretch with runners on,” O’Sullivan said on Peterson’s improvement as of late. “He has the ability to throw the ball to both sides of the plate. He can locate fastballs in to right handers, which in this day and age, a lot of pitchers have trouble doing that.”
No. 9-seed Florida takes on No. 8-seed Vanderbilt in the opening round of the SEC Tournament on Tuesday, May 21 at approximately 5:30 p.m. ET on SEC Network.