Five stages of grief, five days after. Denial The Gators won Game 2 Sunday afternoon 24-4, there is no way LSU gets off the mat. A shared belief posted on GC more than once. One day later, a Game 3 LSU barrage of 24 hits and a final score of 18-4. Game, set, match. Arghhh! Anger One coach juggled his Game 3 starting lineup. The coach holding up the NC Trophy after the game. Here's a response to the thought that another coach might want to consider doing the same thing. We made it to Omaha. We're in the finals. Don't try to understand genius. Just sit back and appreciate it. Genius indeed. Bargaining It could be worse. At least the Gators aren't coached by the LONR. The coach that in 40 years had 17 CWS appearances. Was ranked the #1 or #2 CWS team four times (1986, 1999, 2002, 2003). And CWS Runner-Up two times (1986, 1999). Yet never won an NCAA Division I Baseball NC. Compare that to another coach that in 16 years has had 8 CWS appearances. Was ranked the #1 or #2 CWS team six times (2011, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2023). And CWS Runner-Up two times (2011, 2023). That did win an NCAA Division I Baseball NC (2017). I get it, rings matter. But, be careful throwing stones. A lot of exceptional college baseball talent has made it's way thru Gainesville in the last decade and a half. To quote wingtee, "Extra special means you win it all". Depression Football season can't get here fast enough. Acceptance Wait till next year. As always. It's Great To Be A Florida Gator! PS: For the last time. Nobody needs to be fired. But, the ability to evolve is a good characteristic.
Great thoughts! I wouldn’t say it was Sully’s best coaching in Omaha. It happens and he was dealing with some vulnerabilities in his lineup. Often, late in this tourney, trying to find reliable pitching is a problem. You could see this in Sunday’s and Monday’s games. For me, I wouldn’t want to have any other coach than Sully! It’s very hard to advance to the final eight, much less win it. This one stings because we were so close. But, we will be back soon, maybe next year!! Go Gators!
All teams have warts of one form or another and a lot depends on a few breaks here and there. If Langfords contact of the ball would have been 1/8th of an inch lower in his last at bat in game 1 we would have the spoils in our trophy case. My only wonder would be was there some corrective cause for all 3 starters to struggle in the finals?
Sometimes @gatorstevelp the answers we seek are clearly right in front of us. By that I mean first realize we were (arguably) facing or going up against one of the best offensive lineups in the country. Second, just by the time of the season it is, that same lineup has a full season of film to study of our pitching staff (in its entirety). What our strengths, tendencies, and weaknesses are. The winning formula for good pitching to beat good hitting has always been the same — LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION. I don’t see that changing. As we are all human, regardless of desires, human errors are inevitable. This is why we play the games. At least this is the way I see our great game of baseball-every year.
Agree however the bullpen was very good in games 1 & 2 unlike the starters. Just odd all 3 starters struggled like they did.
I can surely agree that the timing of that happening was not any good at all. I have to maintain that from the pitching standpoint our successes and failures are directly linked to our performance abilities with location or lack of location.
Funny that we are blaming our pitching for not winning it all. Our team really wasn't built on pitching for success unlike our 2017 team. The 2023 Gators scored a lot of runs and that is how they won a lot of games. We did have moments of great pitching but it was never sustained like the 2017 team. The 2017 team couldn't score runs anything like our 2023 team.
In 2017 we had Singer Kowar and Faedo. That was three guys that could really pitch. This year we had three guys with live arms that have huge potentials but have yet to figure it out. On occasion each one of them had outstanding outings but they never were consistent. Kind of like having three collegiate Puks as your starters. And like Puk I expect them all to be in The Show.
And we had Michael Byrne, who was an almost automatic win if we had a lead of any kind after 7 innings.
I guess this as good as any thread to put this on... Great read about Langford and his new team. Florida Baseball: Texas Rangers writer reacts to Wyatt Langford
