Sometimes, the opening series of the season is against a mid-major team from up North that doesn’t pose much of a challenge. It’s a chance for the Gators to start the season off 3-0 and get a bunch of their freshmen some playing time.
That probably won’t be the case this weekend. While Liberty might not have the name recognition or the history of success that major conference programs have, the Gators are expecting them to provide some stiff competition.
The Flames went 41-16 in 2021 and 19-2 in the Atlantic Sun to win the league by a wide margin. They won two games in the Knoxville Regional against Duke before losing a close game to No. 3 national seed Tennessee in the regional final.
Liberty returns several of their top players from that team, including all-conference performers Aaron Anderson (outfield), Trey Gibson (pitcher), Gray Betts (catcher) and Brady Gulakowski (designated hitter). Collegiate Baseball named Anderson as a preseason All-American.
Perfect Game ranked the Flames 25th in their preseason poll, and they received votes in several other publications’ rankings as well. They’ve been picked to win the Atlantic Sun for the third year in a row.
“We know that any team can beat any team in baseball, so we’re going to try to go out there, be confident, focus throughout the whole series, every pitch, one pitch at a time and hopefully come out of here with a sweep,” center fielder Jud Fabian said.
This could feel more like an SEC series or a regional than a typical opening series.
“They’ve got three transfers in their lineup,” coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “They’ve got an older pitching staff that’s all got experience. They’ve got bullpen pieces. They’ve got probably, I think, six guys that can run their fastball up to 94, 95, 96. They’re very talented, certainly a regional type team. They’re coming off of a really good season last year. It’ll be a really good test for us.”
O’Sullivan nearing decision on rotation, bullpen coming together
Perhaps the biggest mystery surrounding the Gators right now is what the pitching rotation will look like this weekend.
Third-year sophomore lefty Hunter Barco is the lone returning starter, and he’s been pegged as a consensus preseason All-American. He will unquestionably get the ball to start the season.
O’Sullivan’s done a nice job of not tipping his hand with the other two spots. Brandon Sproat started two games toward the end of last season, and he started opposite of Barco in a scrimmage last Saturday. Timing-wise, that would seem to indicate that Sproat is in line to start on Saturday.
The Sunday spot could be a battle between freshmen Pierce Coppola and Kyle Hartman, though sophomore Timmy Manning could also be an option with the way that he’s performed over the last few weeks.
O’Sullivan said that he has a “pretty good idea” of what the rotation will look like this weekend, but he wants to wait until after Tuesday’s practice before announcing his decision to the team.
He said that it’s tough to make the call on who to start when there aren’t many experienced options to choose from and he hasn’t seen how any of them will react in a game setting yet. He understands that he might make the wrong decision and have to change things later. That’s just part of the early-season feeling-out process.
“We talked to the pitchers just [Monday] again,” O’Sullivan said. “You’ve got to make all these decisions before you even play your first game, and not every decision you make as a head coach is going to be right.
“All you can do is make decisions on what you see in practice. So, whoever we do throw out there for the first three games are going to be guys that have earned it. I think if you talk to any of the players once the rotation’s out, they will probably agree that these three pitchers have probably earned the right to go out there and start on the weekend, at least opening weekend.”
Of equal importance is the development of the Gators’ bullpen. Assuming that a freshman gets the start on Sunday, that means that the bullpen will feature seven true freshmen, two redshirt freshmen who have never appeared in a game before and a few veterans who haven’t contributed much in the past.
O’Sullivan feels good about their plan going into the year, but, again, he’ll remain open to making tweaks and adjustments as he sees fit early in the season.
“The back end of the bullpen has started to come together for us,” he said. “I have no idea if it’s going to stay like that or work out, but we’re putting some pitchers maybe in some situations they’re not usually used to since they’ve started their whole lives. We’ll find out pretty quickly if some of these decisions and roles are going to work, and, if they don’t, then, obviously, we’ve got other options.
“We feel good about these freshmen, and I’m excited about it. I’m excited to get them out there and watch them compete and also understanding that there’s going to be some ups and downs with them, but I’m really looking forward to getting them out there because they’re certainly talented, and, hopefully, they’ll figure it out sooner or later.
“I think that’s the thing that these young pitchers need to understand is pitching is no longer just about velocity. It’s about commanding the ball, holding runners, fielding your position, all the little things that need to be done well at this level because, if you’re not good at something, the other team will figure it out, and you’ll get exposed.”
Coppola standing out
Coppola did something rather incredible a couple of weeks ago. He pitched three innings in a scrimmage and struck out nine batters. O’Sullivan said that he doesn’t know if he’s ever seen anything like that before.
Whether he starts or not, Coppola will have a large role on this team. He’s a 6-foot-8 lefty who might be able to hit the mid-90s with his fastball as he gets stronger. Normally, you would have concerns about someone that young and that tall having accuracy issues due to all of the moving parts, but that hasn’t seemed to be a problem so far for him.
“For being that big, his coordination in his delivery and his ability to repeat his delivery at such a young age is quite remarkable,” O’Sullivan said. “He throws a ton of strikes. He’s got a slider that’s improved. He’s worked on a straight change since the fall. Sometimes, he throws too many strikes, to be quite honest with you. He’ll make some mistakes up in the count with two strikes. When he really dials in and fine tunes his command, he’s got a chance to be really, really good.”
Barco said that Coppola has a bright future ahead.
“He’s got as much potential as anybody I’ve seen,” he said. “He’s really developed. He’s done a great job over this past fall just kind of stepping into the role that we’re going to need him to be, whatever that may be, and I feel like he’s ready to pitch at this level. I expect him to have a great season, and he’s going to go out there every time we ask him to, and he’s going to throw the ball across the plate and be a really good teammate with whatever role he has.
“He gets really good extension with how tall he is, so the ball gets on you quick from what I’ve heard from the hitters.”
Langford mashing
Sophomore Wyatt Langford has put on quite a show for those who have attended scrimmages throughout the offseason. He’s been one of their best contact hitters and one of their biggest power threats as well. He’s hit some balls that looked like they were still going up when they cleared the outfield wall.
Langford will start in left field on Friday night and probably serve as a lightning bolt near the bottom of the batting order.
All of this begs the question: why didn’t a guy who is so skilled offensively get more than four at bats in 2021?
O’Sullivan said that Langford’s lack of playing time simply came down to depth. He enrolled at UF as a catcher, and he wasn’t going to beat out Nathan Hickey or Mac Guscette for playing time behind the plate. Left field was occupied by eventual seventh-round draft pick Jacob Young, while Kendrick Calilao, Kris Armstrong and Jordan Butler took turns at the first base and designated hitter spots.
Langford was just the odd man out. With Young gone, a spot opened up for him in left field this year, and he’s ran away with it.
“He’s a great hitter,” Barco said. “He’s really put the work in, and he’s done everything that the coaches have asked him to do. He’s a great teammate, and he wants to help the team win. He’s done a great job doing that. He’s competitive in the box, and he’s not going to back down from a fight in the box.”
While he isn’t the fastest outfielder on the team, O’Sullivan thinks that fans will be surprised at how well Langford runs the bases and tracks down fly balls.
“He’s got himself in really, really good shape, and he runs way better than what people think,” he said. “He’ll hit a groundball to short, and, next thing you know, it’s bang-bang at first. He runs 4.2 and sometimes 4.1-and-some-change down the line. The major league average I think from the right side is 4.3. So, he gets down the line really good, and I think a lot of that has to do with his effort in the weight room and how he’s changed his eating habits and got himself into really good shape.”
Fabians to finally play together
When Jud Fabian opted to skip his senior season of high school baseball to enroll early at Florida, it looked like he and younger brother Deric would never get to play on the same team again.
The two are three years apart, so Jud’s senior season in high school that he skipped was Deric’s freshman year. So, they never played together in high school.
By the time Deric blossomed into a prized recruit in his own right, Jud would’ve just finished his third year with the Gators and begun preparing for life as a multi-millionaire.
At least, that was the initial plan.
Of course, Jud turned down a hefty signing bonus from the Boston Red Sox after being drafted in the second round last year. Because the NCAA opted to not count the abbreviated 2020 season against players’ eligibility, Jud will still have draft leverage and the opportunity to sign a lucrative professional contract after this season, a fact that undoubtedly made returning to UF even an option for him last year.
Both of them will be in the starting lineup against Liberty on Friday night, Jud in center field and Deric at third base.
“It was a hard decision throughout all of August, I guess it was, but I definitely learned a lot about myself throughout that whole month and spent it with family,” Jud Fabian said. “Had some quality family time and learned how to become more of a man throughout that because it’s more negotiations than anything at that point. It’s more of business.
“I definitely do think this was God’s plan, being able to come back and play with Deric, especially because he’s got a chance to start at third. Practices have been fun, messing around with him, having him razz me when I do bad and razzing him when he does bad. So, I definitely think it was a blessing in disguise.”
O’Sullivan has been pleased with the way that Jud has helped bring his younger brother along.
“They are really close,” O’Sullivan said. “I think Jud’s done a really, really good job of helping his brother kind of get acclimated. I think they’ve done a lot of talking even before Deric got here, and, certainly, Deric was not given the job at third base just because his last name is Fabian. He earned it, and he’s earned every right to get every opportunity to start at third base.”