The Florida Gators baseball team is 0-6 in conference play for the first time since the 2001 season, a somewhat surprising record after Kevin O’Sullivan’s squad mostly cruised through non-conference play, picking up a series win vs Miami and a midweek win at No.4 FSU. Eight of Florida’s 20 non-conference games to this point have ended in a run-rule victory, with UF posting a 16-2 non-conference record. That success has not carried over to SEC play as the Gators have been swept in back-to-back weekends by No.1 Tennessee and No.3 Georgia. Most recently, the Gators were swept at home for the first time since April 22-24, 2022 vs. Tennessee when Georgia outscored Florida 40-13 in a three-game set.
Gator Country takes a look at what is going wrong on the diamond.
GATORS AREN’T HEALTHY
Unfortunately for the Gators, when the competition picked up so did the injuries. Florida is currently without their Friday night starter Liam Peterson and Saturday starter Pierce Coppola, who both got off to tremendous starts to the 2025 season. While injuries cannot be the only excuse for the beatdown that took place in Gainesville last weekend, the reality is Florida is not the same team without their two best pitchers. Not even close. Peterson is considered one of the best arms in the sport, recently labeled as SP1 for the 2026 MLB Draft, according to D1Baseball. Coppola, who’s had his career hindered by injuries, looked like the dominant pitcher he was recruited to be, posting a 1.42 ERA through three starts prior to injury. While there’s no timeline for Peterson or Coppola, both will throw this week in practice as Florida evaluates where they are at.
It gets even worse, too. LHP Frank Menendez was recently ruled out for the season, as reported by Gator Country. Florida’s staff considered Menendez one of the most improved pitchers in the offseason and was expected to be one of Florida’s primary arms out of the bullpen. On the season, Menendez posted a 1.29 ERA across seven innings pitched, allowing just one run, five hits, and three walks while striking out 12 batters. Menendez was Florida’s only experienced lefty out of the bullpen, which puts a lot of pressure on the Gators’ younger lefties to step up.
Freshman RHP Joshua Whritenour was ruled out for the season in the preseason. Whritenour was one of Florida’s top freshman arms in fall camp. Florida’s projected leadoff batter Kyle Jones is out for the season with a shoulder injury. Returning starting second baseman Cade Kurland has been in and out of the lineup with a shoulder injury over the last month.
Some years you don’t see many injuries. Only years it seems like everyone on the roster is dealing with something. It’s been one of those years so far for Florida baseball. The first step in fixing this mess is getting healthier. A number of guys are already out for the season, but Peterson, Coppola, and Kurland are huge pieces that the Gators would love to get back sooner rather than later.
FLORIDA NEEDS EXTENDED OUTINGS FROM STARTERS
While injuries to two of Florida’s weekend starters may keep them from winning a series against top teams in the country, there’s no reason why Florida couldn’t compete at a higher level than they did against Georgia. The Bulldogs humiliated Florida’s pitching staff last weekend, scoring 40 runs in just 25 trips to the plate including 32 runs in the final 16 innings of the series.
The first issue is that Florida’s starters are not getting deep enough into the game. When you are dealing with a pitching staff that’s hindered with injuries, it’s imperative you get at least five to six innings from your starting pitchers. Against Georgia, Florida’s starters averaged three innings, putting a tremendous amount of pressure on a bullpen that’s already shorthanded.
Diving a little deeper, Florida pitching put themselves in difficult situations by failing to throw strikes. In 25 innings pitched vs Georgia last weekend, Florida walked 17 batters and hit an additional five. That equates to 22 free passes in the series, far too many against an offense that’s already widely considered the most dangerous in the country. It’s important to note that strike throwing was not the issue vs Tennessee and really hasn’t been a problem outside of the Georgia series. Even after a disastrous showing vs Georgia, Florida baseball still ranks 40th in the country in walks per nine innings. Time will tell whether this was an outlier, or the start of a major problem for the Gators.
The problem vs Georgia was even deeper than strike throwing, however. Georgia hit 13 home runs vs Florida pitching. The Bulldogs led the Nation in home runs prior to the series, and now have 11 more home runs then Tennessee, who ranks 2nd in the country with 59 home runs. All ten pitchers who toed the rubber for Florida in games two and three allowed at least two runs in their appearances. It looked as if every pitcher who took the mound was lacking the confidence needed to compete in the SEC. O’Sullivan was hopeful Florida’s heartbreaking loss vs Georgia on Friday night would light a fire within the team, but it looked as if the exact opposite happened. Gators need to find a way to flush this start to the season and regroup.
Florida was chasing runs all weekend vs Georgia, which is not a recipe for success in the SEC. In five of the eight innings Florida scored in vs Georgia, the Gators’ pitching staff allowed ‘rebound runs’ in the following half inning, making it incredibly difficult to establish any momentum.
Kevin O’Sullivan mentioned the possibility of switching up the weekend rotation ahead of Florida’s weekend series vs Ole Miss in hopes to find more consistency on the bump.
NOT WINNING CLOSE GAMES
While Florida is 0-6 in conference play, three of the games have been decided by three runs or less. You aren’t expected to win every close game, but the Gators have failed to capitalize on good chances to steal wins against the SEC’s best. It comes down to the little things in close games: Getting bunts down, walking the leadoff batter, and base running. Florida struggled to execute in all three of their close losses, and that’s been the difference between an average start to conference play and Florida’s worst start since 2001.
WHERE’S THE OFFENSE?
The Gators have just 20 combined runs through six conference games this season, an average of 3.33 runs per game. Florida’s best offensive performance in league play came in game one vs Georgia, where the Gators plated seven runs on seven hits including three home runs. While Florida has 39 home runs on the season which ranks 18th in the country, their leaders in Brody Donay and Bobby Boser have cooled off from their red-hot start. Colby Shelton, Florida’s starting shortstop who blasted 45 home runs through his first two seasons at the colligate level, has just three through 26 games this season.
Hitters at this level go through highs and lows, but the Gators’ offense needs to step up while Florida’s pitching staff tries to get back healthy.
LOOKING AHEAD
Florida baseball has reached a new low under Kevin O’Sullivan, but it’s not time to hammer the panic button quite yet as there’s plenty of baseball ahead. After all, Florida went through very similar struggles last year before making a run all the way to College World Series, where the Gators were one of the last four teams standing. O’Sullivan has a knack for getting the best out of his players when it matters most. For Florida last season, that wasn’t until the last regular season series vs Georgia. The Gators don’t really have the luxury of waiting that long to play their best ball given they are already 0-6 in conference play, so O’Sullivan will need to turn this around rather quickly. However, given the SEC’s strength, the benchmark for conference wins in order to make the NCAA Tournament will likely be 13, the same number it was last season. Florida made the tournament with 13 wins last season and a less than impressive non-conference resume.
The goal at this point in the season is simply making the NCAA Tournament. With 24 SEC games remaining, Florida needs to likely finish 13-11, a tall task given the current circumstances, but certainly doable.
It doesn’t get much easier as the Gators have to travel to travel to No.15 Ole Miss this weekend with Liam Peterson’s status very much up in the air.