Apologizing for bringing up fishing is more offensive than bringing up fishing. Go GATORS! ,WESGATORS
That's funny guys-- ok as long as talking about fishing is on side-- correction- my brother's Cobia yesterday was 44 lbs. not 36-- plus 5 large yellowtail and a Rainbow Runner- in addition to what the other two guys caught- all within limits.
Last fishing post. A great bike riding friend of mine (former pro) was a real fisherman. He died of brain cancer before he taught me how to fly fish. I really miss him. A former grad student of mine is a fly fisherman. He says that he will teach me, but he lives in San Diego. We met up for the solar ecplise a few years ago at Sun Valley, ID. I had hiked the day before and he asked me what insects I had seen. Mostly I remembered some small grasshoppers. When we went to the local shop he bought a number of grasshopper flys and he was told tht they wouldn't work and that other flys would be better. Guess who was right. A former grad student friend is a fly fisherman, but I don't think he will have the time to teach me. I took him on his first real fishing trip on the Brule River on the Wisconsin/Upper Michigan border. BTW it is a great place to fish as there is very little access except by canoe. You do have to be wary of bears, though. He was at U Minnesota and now at Johns Hopkins. I wonder where he fly fishes out of Baltimore.
Sully has changed the batting order. It's as follows: Langford, Thompson, Fabian, Riopelle, Calilao, Halter, Rivera, Caglianone, Fabian. Hope it works. Gators need these games badly!
UF baseball beat Kentucky in the opening game of a must win home series 9-2. Brandon Sproat battled through 5.2 innings and 103 pitches to shut out the Wildcats on 5 hits and 3 walks with 5 K's, battling out of a couple of jams to get the win. Blake Purnell went 2.1 innings and gave up a solo HR and Anthony Ursitti went the final 1.1 innings, giving up a solo HR of his own. A shuffled lineup paid off for the Gators as Wyatt Langford led off the bottom of the 1st with a HR, going 204 with 2 RBI on the night. Th3 Gators got 4 runs in the 5th, 3 more in the 6th and another in the 8th for the fairly easy win. Jac Caglinone went 3-4 as DH, scoring 3 runs, while Sterlin Thompson went 2-4 with a HR and 4 RBI. Josh Rivera went 2-4 with 2 runs scored, while both Fabians had an RBI, as did Kendrick Calilao. Florida needs every win they can muster as they try to climb back into position to get into the NCAA tournament.
Sully changed up the line-up big time, but we still have line-up issues. In a perfect world you would want your lead-off man to have a stellar OBP and be a threat on the base paths. Langford does fit that description, but maybe a waste of home run power. The next batter should have really good bat control. That is a problem. We don't have that. Can you think of any current Gator hitter that can hit behind the runner and has a solid bunt? Having a solid hitter without that particular skill set might be the best we can do. If we had that two hole hitter that can move a runner over we have Jud who would be the ideal three hole hitter. The other team could take their chances or pitch around him and he takes the walk.
UF baseball improved their record to 25-17, 8-12 by dominating Kentucky for the second day in a row 9-1 in a game that had the start time pushed back by rain and then had a 2-hour rain delay in the bottom of the 4th inning with Florida up 7-0. That lengthy delay ended the night and a quality start from Grandon Neely and forced the Gators to go to their bullpen earlier than would have otherwise been necessary. Hopefully it won't impact the pitching for Sunday's game as the Gators go for the series sweep. Tyler Nesbit went 1.2 innings and threw 38 pitches, Blake Purnell went 1 inning and threw 22 pitches and Nick Ficarrotta went 2.1 innings and threw 35 pitches to close out the game. The Gator offense had 11 hits, led by G.T. Riopelle's 3-5 with 3 RBI and Sterlin Thompson's 2-5 with 2 RBI. Josh Rivera an Jac Caglionone each had solo HR's. Florida scored 3 runs in the 1st inning as Wyatt Langford led off with a triple, Thompson got an RBI and reached on a throwing error, then was knocked on a double by Jud Fabian, who came home on a Riopelle single. They scored 4 more in the 2nd inning on Rivera's HR, a Thompson double that drove in Deric Fabian, who had walked and stolen second, and a 2-out, 2 RBI single from Riopelle. Colby Halter had an RBI single in the 5th inning and Caglianone closed out the scoring with his HR in the 7th. Sunday's game is at Noon on the SEC Network.
Big one today as we fight to make sure we play in the SEC tournament. Watching SC win 3 in a row not helping us. Hoping Bama beats them today. Missouri winning doesn’t help us. Beating Kentucky is huge as we propel ourselves up the standings and knock them back as they are one of the teams we are fighting for with the 11 or 12th spot. We also play SC and Mizzou soon and would have to be expected to take 2/3 from both. SC had former local kid and major thorn in our side Andrew Eyster that is putting up big numbers once again. Going to Miss. St. next week is a tricky one. They can swing it but pitching has been bad. Gotta take 2/3 there too and again will be tough. We’ve gotta come through offensively and s ire runs early.
You mentioned the lighter schedule we have and those teams are saying the same thing about us . “We have Florida coming up, we should take at least 2”
Florida baseball lost to Kentucky 8-1 Sunday to drop to 25-18, 8-13 in the SEC. The Gators only managed 5 hits in a pretty lethargic performance in which the 1-5 batters went a combined 0-15 with 2 walks and 6 K's. Starting pitcher Ryan Slater only lasted 3.1 innings, giving up 4 runs on 7 hits (2 HR's), a wild pitch that allowed a runner to score in the 1st on a Sac. fly and only 1 K. Fisher Jameson did well as our 2nd pitcher, going 4 innings, allowing 1 run on 2 hits with 5 K's. Philip Abner went .2 innings and gave up 2 runs on a hit and a walk, with Anthony Ursitti going 1 inning and giving a 3-run HR, with him being charged with 1 run, the other 2 to Abner. Slater's ERA is now 10.80 and Abner's is 27.00. The Gators host USF Tuesday at 6 pm before heading to StarkVegas for a Fri., Sat., Sun. series. Every win is a big one at this point, as is every loss as the Gators are struggling just to make the NCAA tournament.
The big news for me is UF’s RPI dropped to 22 despite taking 2 of 3. This means that the weak schedule at the end is going to really hurt UF’s RPI. 13-17 may not be enough. UF might have to be 14-16 now. That would mean 6-3 over the last 9 SEC games. 13-17 with a win over the SWAC might be enough but it is leaving a lot to chance. Not winning today hurt imo.
Florida's RPI is #21 according to WarrenNolan.com, SOS still at #2. They just need W's any way they can get them from this point out. RPI (Live) 2022 College Baseball | WarrenNolan.com
But even going 2 and 1 DROPPED the RPI. Not good… Just W’s isn’t enough. They need a lot of W’s. More than 2 most likely. The 6 road games will help a bit but MSU has a poor RPI.
