Baseball at Nebraska, Fri 5/31, 3:00 pm EDT

Note from Kevin Brockway
O'Sullivan made it sounds like regardless of outcome, Peterson will pitch on Friday and Jac Caglianone will pitch on Saturday. Pierce Coppola would start Sunday, O'Sullivan said he can throw 80-90 pitches. Says starters need to give UF length in Stillwater Regional

Kevin O'Sullivan said he's "not surprised" Florida made 2024 tournament based on resume, said Liam Peterson is starting Friday because he's been UF's best starter the last month

********************************
Florida baseball coach Kevin O'Sullivan said he wasn't surprised that the Gators reached the 2024 NCAA Tournament for a 16th straight time with a 28-27 overall record.

"We did beat Texas A&M 2 out 3, Mississippi State 2 out of 3," O'Sullivan said. "I guess the top six teams in our league, I know Mississippi State's not hosting, but we went 9-9 against them, went on the road, won 2 of 3 at LSU and did what we needed to do in a series at Georgia at the end of the year, a top eight national seed. I'm not going to make any apologies."

The Florida Gators can erase the disappointment of an inconsistent regular season when it begins NCAA Regional play on Friday against Nebraska (39-20) at the Stillwater Regional

O'Sullivan said OF Hayden Yost is done for the year with a torn ACL,

 

Let’s do this Gators!

 

Just a nitpick but shouldn't be Gators vs Nebraska and not at Nebraska. The game is in Stillwater. I get that the Huskers will be the home team but they aren't playing at home.

 

I know that the Husker's starting pitcher has great stats this year but why would a dominant pitcher be a senior? Weird.

Hoping we fluff up his ERA on Friday.

 

Here are the teams Brett Sears has pitched against this year: Grand Canyon, College of Charleston, South Alabama, Nicholls St., New Mexico State, Northwestern, Ohio State, Rutgers, Maryland, Iowa, Minnesota, Indiana, Michigan State, Purpdue, Penn St. Against Penn St. he only threw 1 inning. In all other games, he went a minimum of 5 innings every outing, averaging 6.1 innings per start. Pretty impressive numbers, but not exactly a murder's row of baseball teams.

 

I want to see how he pitches to Cags in the first inning. Is he full of himself with his gaudy stats?

If he pitches around him we are already in his head.

 

Against Iowa he went 5 innings and left with the game tied. NE had been trailing 4-1 but tied it up in the 5th. And he left for a no decision.

You have to wonder how many other games that happened.

 

I believe he started 15 games, so 6 no decisions for one reason or another.

 

From what I've read he was a middling RP early on in his college career and developed late with an uptick in Velo and simply working on "pitching" hitting spots and mixing up his pitches. The Big Ten pitcher of the year so Gators have to be on their game.

 

When you limit the stats to conference only--he was 4-0 with 8 starts. His ERA goes to .273 with 44 K's. He only pitched 52.2 innings in those 8 games.

 

The Penn State game was the conference championship game. He came into the game in the 9th and recorded a save.

 

I'm not going into this weekend with any expectations. But I am hoping in the very least, that Jac hits 1 HR in the 2 games or more we have so he will become the first player in SEC history to hit 30 HRs or more in back to back seasons. I believe I heard that somewhere in the SECT game.

 

I’m with you, but we could actually win this game if:

we get off to a decent start. Would be nice to not be behind early. Please no hit batters or walks that first inning. Offensively, need quality at bats early and not strikeouts.

 

52.2 inings in 8 starts in Conference play? That's about 6.5 innings... that means he often pitches into the 7th. Sounds pretty good to me. Do we know if they have a quality "closer"?

 

The guys that appear to be closers have ERA's around 4-5 from the stats

 

A 2.00 ERA in D1 baseball over that many innings with the kind of offense being witnessed is outstanding. There are outstanding players and outstanding competition outside of the SEC/ACC believe it or not.

 

This game brings back a lot of great memories for Gator fans from 2005 including myself. We opened up with a victory over Luke Hosevar and the UT Vols with Alan on the hill and followed that with a victory over the Cornhuskers with Tommy Boss on the bump against a jam packed house of Big Red fans.

Boy was that great when Bossman and our Gators turned them silent.
I say LET’S DO IT AGAIN!!!

 

FLORIDA -116, Nebraska -114 earlier

up to -140/+110

Wonder what each team had for breakfast.

Go GATORS!
,WESGATORS