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2023 Baseball & Softball Thread

Impressive win. Just kept grinding out at bats and putting guys on base until we finally broke out. Staff looking deep and explosive. The newcomers look super talented and the vets are doing their thing. Cags continues to be a laser show.
 
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Suffered our first loss tonight, pitching gave up 10 runs on 13 hits. The 3 errors didn't help. Offense put up 9 runs on 17 hits so that part was good. Nobody goes undefeated in baseball. Still a good start by this team. Sully will get the 2nd weekday starter figured out.
 
Suffered our first loss tonight, pitching gave up 10 runs on 13 hits. The 3 errors didn't help. Offense put up 9 runs on 17 hits so that part was good. Nobody goes undefeated in baseball. Still a good start by this team. Sully will get the 2nd weekday starter figured out.
We were up 8-3 I think and then Sully started making a bunch of careless pitching changes that just went south. Not sure why he did that. He has a tendency to do that at times and it costs the team games.
 
We were up 8-3 I think and then Sully started making a bunch of careless pitching changes that just went south. Not sure why he did that. He has a tendency to do that at times and it costs the team games.
Which I don't mind at this point in the season. Needs to see what he has along with getting some guys experience. It's all about getting ready for conference play. SEC will be a brutal grind this year. But I do agree with you sometimes he overthinks the pitching strategy.
 
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We were up 8-3 I think and then Sully started making a bunch of careless pitching changes that just went south. Not sure why he did that. He has a tendency to do that at times and it costs the team games.
I wouldn't call his pitching changes careless. Blake Purnell was a freshman All American last year who led the team in appearances and had the 2nd lowest ERA on the team. He came on in the 8th after Chris Arroyo gave up a leadoff single and got out of the inning with 0 runs and a walk. In the 9th, he gave a first pitch HR to the leadoff batter and then our right fielder dropped an easy fly out. That started things going south. After Purnell walked the next batter, Sully brought in Fisher Jameson, who pitched some last year and O'Sullivan said before the season that he worked hard in the off season and would be relied on a lot this year out of the bullpen. He had thrown a perfect 1.1 innings opening night and looked great. He struck out USF's best hitter and then gave up a single and a 1st pitch HR to tie the game. After he walked the next batter, Sully brought in Anthony Ursetti, who threw 21 inning last year and is another pitcher that Sully had said before the season he had a lot of confidence in and would be a plus from the bullpen and possibly as a midweek starter. This was his first appearance on the mound this season. He got the first guy to fly out and then had a pitch that our catcher didn't read, then gave up a triple that really was a single because the outfield was playing in to try to keep the go-ahead run from scoring. Then our catcher had a passed ball to let the 10th run score before a strikeout ended the inning. Purnell, Jameson and Ursetti are all guys with a year's experience who O'Sullivan has expressed confidence in and things just didn't work out tonight. 3 of their runs were unearned and our catcher misplayed a few pitches that led to runners advancing, one scoring. Plus the dropped fly ball by Ty Evans.

To me this was just a lesson for the team to take forward that they have to focus every inning and that they can't lose their concentration until the last out is recorded. O'Sullivan has a lot of freshman arms to mix in with some experienced guys who came back and he's got to throw them out there to see which ones he can rely on as the season progresses. I see nothing careless at all in his choices tonight. Slater threw 3 innings last night and Neely 2, so he wasn't going to put them back out there tonight with a weekend series starting Friday. Early in the season he's got to give each of his pitchers opportunities to prove themselves and won't keep going back to the same 2 or 3 relievers and wear them down until he sees which ones are going to be the most dependable for the SEC and post season. And Jameson & Ursetti are 2 guys with experience that he's expressed confidence in based on being around them all of last year and seeing how they progressed in the off season and scrimmages prior to the start of the season. Just didn't work out tonight.
 
I wouldn't call his pitching changes careless. Blake Purnell was a freshman All American last year who led the team in appearances and had the 2nd lowest ERA on the team. He came on in the 8th after Chris Arroyo gave up a leadoff single and got out of the inning with 0 runs and a walk. In the 9th, he gave a first pitch HR to the leadoff batter and then our right fielder dropped an easy fly out. That started things going south. After Purnell walked the next batter, Sully brought in Fisher Jameson, who pitched some last year and O'Sullivan said before the season that he worked hard in the off season and would be relied on a lot this year out of the bullpen. He had thrown a perfect 1.1 innings opening night and looked great. He struck out USF's best hitter and then gave up a single and a 1st pitch HR to tie the game. After he walked the next batter, Sully brought in Anthony Ursetti, who threw 21 inning last year and is another pitcher that Sully had said before the season he had a lot of confidence in and would be a plus from the bullpen and possibly as a midweek starter. This was his first appearance on the mound this season. He got the first guy to fly out and then had a pitch that our catcher didn't read, then gave up a triple that really was a single because the outfield was playing in to try to keep the go-ahead run from scoring. Then our catcher had a passed ball to let the 10th run score before a strikeout ended the inning. Purnell, Jameson and Ursetti are all guys with a year's experience who O'Sullivan has expressed confidence in and things just didn't work out tonight. 3 of their runs were unearned and our catcher misplayed a few pitches that led to runners advancing, one scoring. Plus the dropped fly ball by Ty Evans.

To me this was just a lesson for the team to take forward that they have to focus every inning and that they can't lose their concentration until the last out is recorded. O'Sullivan has a lot of freshman arms to mix in with some experienced guys who came back and he's got to throw them out there to see which ones he can rely on as the season progresses. I see nothing careless at all in his choices tonight. Slater threw 3 innings last night and Neely 2, so he wasn't going to put them back out there tonight with a weekend series starting Friday. Early in the season he's got to give each of his pitchers opportunities to prove themselves and won't keep going back to the same 2 or 3 relievers and wear them down until he sees which ones are going to be the most dependable for the SEC and post season. And Jameson & Ursetti are 2 guys with experience that he's expressed confidence in based on being around them all of last year and seeing how they progressed in the off season and scrimmages prior to the start of the season. Just didn't work out tonight.
Maybe let Purnell try and work through it?? Have never been that impressed with Ursetti or Jameson.

I get that this is early in the season and a non-conference game to try some things and get some pitchers some looks.
 
I actually thought Sully was being really aggressive with the bullpen, trying to lock down the win at 6-1. Unfortunately bullpen and defense imploded. Looked a little like last year at times when the pen couldn’t get anyone out. Hopefully we don’t see too much more of that.
 
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Maybe let Purnell try and work through it?? Have never been that impressed with Ursetti or Jameson.

I get that this is early in the season and a non-conference game to try some things and get some pitchers some looks.
Purnell wasn't that good the last 1/2 of last season. Even though his stats were impressive, I watched every game that was on TV and Purnell often allowed runners he inherited to score and then was taken out or got the final out of an inning himself before his baserunners could score. MLB uses a Stat they call "holds" and if D1 baseball used it, Purnell's "hold" numbers last year would have been terrible. And Jameson looked great Friday night. 4 up 4 down with 2 K's. Besides, when Purnell was relieved he had already thrown 25 pitches, had given up a HR, was victimized by an error in RF and then walked a batter. If he lets him try to work out of it, with no outs, he would have been coming up on facing batters for the 2nd time and Sully never lets his late relievers do that, plus would probably have thrown too many pitches to be available for Friday night and possibly Saturday. They still had an 8-4 lead when he brought in Jameson, who the coach said was going to be used a lot this year after an excellent fall and pre-season and had come off an impressive outing first time out. Just didn't work out, but I think faulting O'Sullivan's decisions in this case is wrong. 20/20 hindsight is always perfect.
 
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#4 UF softball got run-ruled by #1 UCLA in Palm Springs, CA Thursday night 10-0. The UCLA pitcher gave up no hit and only 1 walk, while striking out 9 Gators in 5 innings. 3 Gators pitchers were ineffective, with starter Rylee Trlicek only lasting 1.2 inning and getting the loss. UF's best player, Skylar Wallace, didn't make the trip out West due to illness and starting right fielder, Baylee Goddard, is apparently out due to a leg injury suffered last weekend. Florida plays UC Riverside at 4 pm today and then #22 Oregon at 1 pm Saturday and Cal St. Fullerton at 3:30 Saturday before heading back to Gainesville. Here's the box score of the UCLA game - ugly!
 
Gators should have ended this game in the 5th up 6-0, Had bases loaded and one out and they end the inning up 6-3 and now our bullpen will get tested it looks like. Similar to Wednesday night, we’re turning what should be a laugher into a game.
 
Cincy is some kind of terrible in the field. That’s two pop ups to third they’ve botched, which cost them 3 runs.
 
Scoring runs isn’t going to be the Gators problem that’s for sure. I’d like to see them do better with guys in scoring position and less than 2 outs.

And the bullpen continues to be a little sloppy. Going to need to tighten up in both areas.
 
Somebody posted on another thread that the Gator announcers said Baylee Goddard is lost for the season on the softball team. Gators did beat UC Riverside 7-0 on Friday behind Elizabeth Hightower's good pitching. However, we lost both games today. Got 1-hit by Oregon and beat 8-0, as Elizabeth Hightower gave up 3 HR's in 4.2 innings and Rylee Trlicek gave up another bomb. In Game 2, Cal St. Fullerton beat us 5-4 in 8 innings on a 2-run walk off HR off Hightower in the bottom of the 8th after the Gators had taken a 4-3 lead in the top of the inning. Lexie Delbrey started the game and the 3 runs against her were all unearned, although there was a 2-run HR involved. Hightower relieved in the 4th inning withy UF trailing 3-0 and held them scoreless while the Gators mounted a comeback and tied the game in the 6th, but EH gets her second loss of the day by allowing the walkoff homer. The Gators outhit the Titans 10-8 , plus had 4 walks to their 0, but we stranded 10 baserunners and just couldn't get clutch hits most of the game. Florida is now 11-3, having lost to the only 3 really good teams they've played so far. It seems they may have been overrated to start the season, but time will tell. The team is off until they go to Birmingham to play UAB Friday, Saturday & Sunday.
 
Caglione’s start to the season is incredible. If he keeps it up, he’s going to be the biggest star in college baseball.

 
Gator softball drops from #3 to #13 after a 1-3 trip out West. Baseball climbs 1 spot to #6.
Crazy how the Softball team got mauled. Either the Pac 12 is incredibly good or we are not nearly as good.
 
Oklahoma beat UCLA 14-0 Sunday.
Given the circumstances, this past weekend I like to believe was an anomaly and it wont happen again, not that the teams will align the same way again, I don't believe, this year.
We were in effect trying to play against UCLA after arriving in the morning of game day, UCLA didn't have that situation. Cold, wet windy weather certainly played against us and we really only had 1 pitcher to combat two of the better pitchers in the field. Lexie Delbry did no pitch well, who knows if she will again this year. Rylee Trelicek (sp) is not the pitcher she was as a Freshman and we did not have our best hitter and that is an unknown going into the SEC Conference games. We lost 3 games which probably will cost us as much as 10 positional points in the rankings. But Hey folks there is no sense in crying over spilt milk so let's get behind Coach Tim and our ladies and start back to winning......jim
 
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