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BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Florida middle-distance runner Sam Ahrenholz was named the Men's winner of the 2018-19 Brad Davis SEC Community Service Leader of the Year, as announced by Commissioner Greg Sankey and the league office Wednesday morning.
Ahrenholz, a senior, joins Grace McLaughlin (2018 – gymnastics), Patric Young (2014 – men's basketball), Stacey Stevens (2007 – softball), and Gabby Fuchs (2001 – gymnastics) as the other Gators to have received the honor since it was first awarded in 1996.
(5 of the 24 >20.8%< winners so far are Gators)
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Florida middle-distance runner Sam Ahrenholz was named the Men's winner of the 2018-19 Brad Davis SEC Community Service Leader of the Year, as announced by Commissioner Greg Sankey and the league office Wednesday morning.
Ahrenholz, a senior, joins Grace McLaughlin (2018 – gymnastics), Patric Young (2014 – men's basketball), Stacey Stevens (2007 – softball), and Gabby Fuchs (2001 – gymnastics) as the other Gators to have received the honor since it was first awarded in 1996.
(5 of the 24 >20.8%< winners so far are Gators)
GAINESVILLE, Fla. - Four Florida teams -- men's basketball, men's cross country, women's golf and women's tennis – are among the programs receiving NCAA recognition Wednesday for standing among their sport's top 10 for Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores.
https://floridagators.com/news/2019/4/30/general-four-teams-receive-ncaa-apr-public-recognition.aspx
https://floridagators.com/news/2019/4/30/general-four-teams-receive-ncaa-apr-public-recognition.aspx
Huge game 1 against UGA tomorrow night. Mace has scuffled but he’s the only guy who’s had any success holding down an offense in SEC play. Win game 1 and hope to split the next two to win a series on the road against a likely national seed. Go Gators. I’ve got my fingers crossed.
Agree. Georgia is winning the way Florida used to do it - pitching and defense. Team ERA is 3.26 (#12 in D1) and fielding is .981 (#8).Their team batting average is only .266, so if our pitchers can step up and just be decent we've got a chance with the way our offense has been playing. They "rested" their ace ALL -American pitcher Emerson Hancock against Miss. St. last weekend and got swept. Plus their 3B/closer Aaaron Schuck did not play the final 2 games vs. Miss. St. due to an Achilles problem. If they are both back in the lineup it will be tough for the good guys. If they're still out, it gives us a better chance to win the series. We'll have to play our best ball of the season, though, as Georgia is very good.
Most baseball fans have taken shots at Brady (Matt Damon) Smith this year. Here's a nice article on him that puts things in perspective.
https://floridagators.com/news/2019/4/29/brady-smith-started-on-path-to-uf-a-long-time-ago.aspx
https://floridagators.com/news/2019/4/29/brady-smith-started-on-path-to-uf-a-long-time-ago.aspx
Gator softball comes into the last weekend of the regular season with the highest RPI in the SEC at #7. If they sweep 30-19 (7-14) Miss. St. at home they will probably get a Top 8 seed in the NCAA tournament. However, the Bulldogs have 2 hitters with a combined 46 home runs and Kelly Barnhill has struggled out of the gate, giving up two 2 run HR's in the 1st 2 innings and UF trails 5-1 going to the bottom of the 2nd. Gators continued their trend of not being able to hit with runners in scoring position as the Bulldog pitcher walked 4 in the 1st inning and the Gators got no hits and couldn't even get a ground ball or sacrifice fly to score more.
Softball game is in a weather delay in the bottom of the 7th with Florida trailing 6-3, bases loaded, 2 outs. UF only has 1 hit against 11-7 Emily Williams, who is Miss. State's ace with a 2.34 ERA. She has 11 walks, all 3 runs have scored on bases loaded walks, 1 in the 1st, 2 in the 7th. Gator batters have been totally anemic, while Kelly Barnhill had her worst outing of the season, only lasting 2 innings and giving up 5 runs, all earned. Natalie Lugo pitched well in relief. Jamie Hoover is up to bat when the game resumes and a grand slam would give the Gators a much needed win, but the way they've hit all season in the clutch, don't bet on it happening.
Florida's lacrosse team won the AAC tournament in Cincinnati, Ohio today by beating Cincinnati 15-9 in the finals after beating Vanderbilt 19-10 in the semis on Thursday. The Gators improved to 13-6 on the year with their 10th straight win, clinching an NCAA tournament bid. UF started the tournament with a #10 RPI and are playing their best lacrosse of the season down the stretch. They will get their seeding and learn the brackets for the 28 team tournament on Sunday at 8 pm.
#3 seed UF Men's Tennis team swept into the Round of 16 next weekend by blanking Florida Gulf Coast 4-0 in the opening round and then shutting out FSU 4-0 today in Gainesville. The Gators meet the winner of the North Carolina State/#14 Tennessee match for the right to advance to the 8 team NCAA championship in Orlando May 16-19.
UF's softball team split a doubleheader today, losing Game 1 4-2, winning the 2nd 2-0. They finish the regular season 40-15, 12-12 in the SEC. Kelly Barnhill was the Game 1 loser, dropping her season record to 27-11. Elizabeth Hightower threw a complete game shutout in Game 2 to improve her record to 4-1. The Gators continued to struggle getting hits against the #12 pitching staff in the SEC and if they can't find more offense, their post season will be over fairly quickly. They next travel to College Station, TX for the SEC tournament next week and then await their seeding and pairings in the NCAA tournament. Even with the #2 SOS in the country, #7 RPI starting this weekend, #2 defense in the country and #1 ERA in the SEC, they probably lost their chance for a Top 8 seed by losing 2 of 3 to Miss. St. But they'll definitely host a regional and I wouldn't be surprised if the committee pits the winner of the Gainesville Regional against the Tallahassee Regional, with FSU hosting. Just a thought.
Baseball got trucked by UGA in game 2. They are just not on that level. Mace is the only guy on staff who can hold an offense down for more than a couple innings, and he would be a No. 3 starter or bullpen arm on our recent CWS teams. The numbers are there on offense, but the bats haven’t really showed up against good teams either. Top it off with substandard defense - a one base error by Dalton precipitated the roof falling in on Leftwich today, and you’ve got a lower tier SEC team this year. They interviewed Sully after Leftwich collapsed, and you could see the steam coming out of his ears. He said: just like all year, we get to the part of the game where pitching’s got to tighten up and we instead get deep into a bunch of counts, end up in fastball counts with runners on and get crushed. That pretty well sums it up. Maybe we’ll end up in a regional without SEC teams and beat up some thin pitching and get us to a super.
We're not gonna make the NCAA tournament unless we get to at least 13, probably 14, conference wins. We're losing the 2nd game of today's doubleheader as well, which will drop us to 9-15 in the SEC with 6 games left. No SEC team has made the NCAA tournament with less than 13 conference wins and between 13-15 it's only happened something like 55% of the time. I just don't see us getting there and if not we don't deserve it anyway.
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All-SEC Softball selections: Amanda Lorenz & Kendyl Lindaman 1st Team; Kelly Barnhill 2nd team; Elizabeth Hightower - Freshman team; Lorenz, All-Defensive. Fewest Gator selections in as long as I can remember, but seems right to me.
https://floridagators.com/news/2019/5/7/multiple-gators-earn-all-sec-accolades.aspx
https://floridagators.com/news/2019/5/7/multiple-gators-earn-all-sec-accolades.aspx
Florida softball rallied with 4 runs in the bottom of the 7th to beat South Carolina in their opening game of the SEC tournament 6-5. After a scoreless 1st inning there was a 5 hour rain delay and then staring pitcher Elizabeth Hightower gave up 3 home runs to put the Gators in a 4-0 hole. Natalie Lugo held the Gamecocks scoreless until the 7th, as Florida stranded 2 runners in the 4th and left the bases loaded in the 5th, but finally scored 2 runs on 2 two out errors by South Carolina in the 8th. Lugo gave up a run in the 7th before Katie Chronister got out of the inning with Florida down 5-2. Lindaman walked, Hoover grounded out, advancing Lindaman to 2nd, Jordan Roberts singled to drive in a run, then Hannah Adams doubled to put runners on 2nd and 3rd. Sophia Reynoso grouned to 1st, where an error was made, allowing a run to score and putting runners on 1st & 3rd with 1 out. Jordan Matthews hit a 3-2 pitch to the gap, driving in both runners and giving the Gators a walk off 6-5 win. Florida plays LSU sometime tomorrow, with Kelly Barnhill on the mound.
6 seed Gator softball beat 3 seed LSU today 3-0 in College Station, TX to improve their record to 42-15 and advance to tomorrow's semifinals against either Tennessee or Auburn. Amanda Lorenz went 3-4 with an RBI, Lindaman & Roberts had an RBI each, as LSU made 2 crucial early errors to help give Florida the 3-0 advantage after 2 innings. Kelly Barnhill improved her record to 28-11, throwing a 1 hitter and only allowing 2 baserunners the entire game. Barnhill moved into 3rd place in Gator history with her 98th career win, behind Stacey Nelson at 136 and Hannah Rogers at 127. UF is trying to make a deep run in this tournament to improve their chances of getting a Top 8 seed for the NCAA's (field to be announced Sunday night).
Florida's softball team just beat Auburn 3-0 to advance to the finals of the SEC tournament against either Alabama or Kentucky. Kelly Barnhill threw her 23rd complete game of the year, a 2-hitter in improving her record to 29-11, wh and the Gators improved to 43-15. Florida only got 2 hits, a single from Amanda Lorenz and an RBI single from Hannah Adams as well as a 2-run HR in the 1st from Adams.
UF baseball came back from 9-2 down to beat Tennessee tonight 109- and improve their SEC record to 10-15 and keep their NCAA tourney hopes alive. Tommy Mace didn't have it, giving up 9 runs and 10 hits in 3.1 innings. But Kirby McMullen threw 3.2 innings of shutout ball and Nolan Crisp threw the final 2 innings to get the win. UF made 2 erros that lead to 2 unearned runs, but Nelson Maldanado went 3-5 with 2 HR's and 3 RBI's, including a gme winning 2 run homer in the bottom of the 8th. Wil Dalton went 2-4 with 3 RBI's, Brady McConnell went 3-5 with an RBI and Jacob Young went 2-4 with a huge 2-out 2 run single in the bottom of the 7th. Huge win!!
Baseball team needs to get to that magical 13 conference win number. That seems to be the trick.
UF's #3 Men's Tennis team just beat #14 Tennessee 4-2 (avenging a loss in the SEC finals) to advance with 7 other teams to the NCAA Championships next week in Orlando. This was an extremely tight match, with the Gators winning the critical doubles point 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 to grab the early 1-0 lead. Alfredo Perez at #3 & Andy Andrade at #4 won their singles matches fairly easily, 7-5, 6-3 & 6-3, 6-2, respectively, while Sam Riffice at #2, got blown out by UT 3-6, 1-6 to make the score 3-1 Gators. The other 3 matches went back and forth, with Lucas Greif at #6, who came into the day at 11-1 on the year in dual matches, losing in 3 sets 6-3, 5-7, 2-6, to make the score 3-2 UF. Oliver Crawford at #1 was deadlocked in his match at 6-2, 4-6, 4-4, when Duarte Vale at #5 ended his match by winning 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (10-8) to give the Gators their 4th point and sending the Gators on in the tournament. Exciting stuff if you're a college tennis fan.
Gators came back several times against the Vols in game 2 but come up 1 run short. Bullpen was bad early but settled down. Maldonado fell down rounding third and didn’t score from second on a double by Smith where the center fielder dove and missed the ball. Even falling down rounding third, I don’t know how he didn’t score on that play. Tomorrow an absolute must win. Really good series so far.
UF softball won their 4th straight game against a ranked team to win the SEC tournament, beating Alabama tonight 2-1 in the finals. Kelly Barnhill pitched her 3rd straight complete game (giving up 1 run total), throwing a 2 hitter tonight, improving her record to 30-11 on the season, her 100th career win (100-19). Amanda Lorenz cracked a 2 run double in the top of the 6th to give the Gators the runs they needed to win. Florida improves to 44-15 and probably sewed up a Top 8 seed for the NCAA tournament.
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UF's #19 lacrosse team was eliminated from the NCAA tournament in the Round of 16 by #3 North Carolina 15-11 in Chapel Hill. The Gators fell behind early 6-1 and played NC even after that, but just couldn't get the deficit smaller than 3. The main difference was the Tar Heels goalkeeper, as Florida had the same number of shots on goal as NC, plus had 3 more free position shots, but their keeper had 11 saves to our 7. UF finished 14-7, but won their 6th straight conference championship and made their 9th straight NCAA tournament appearance.
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Let me be the first on this board to declare the UF baseball season as officially over. They lost 5-4 to Tennessee today after Nick Pogue pitched great for 5.1 innings, handing a 4-1 lead over to the bullpen, which promptly choked it away again. Dropping the series to Tennessee at home puts them at 30-23 for the season, 10-17 in the SEC. They have lost 8 of their last 12 games overall and 7 of their last 10 SEC games. They are 1-11 in SEC road games and finish the season this coming Thurs. - Sat. at Missouri. Very disappointing year for the Gators, a pre-season Top 5 pick nationally, 3rd in the SEC behind Vanderbilt & LSU. The pitching staff just imploded and virtually nobody on the staff stepped up to be a consistent starter, or even a consistent reliever. Worst ERA in the SEC (over 5.00) and even worse in SEC contests (over 7.00). And the defense was bad as well. Just not the type of team one expects from THE University of Florida and Kevin O'Sullivan. Oh well. - It's been like that for several UF sports this academic year.
While UF might not make the CWS for the 1st time in years, things are not so bad really.
Graduating Sr's on the Baseball team:
C Jonah Girand
INF/OF Blake Reese
OF Nelson Maldonado
With the massive load of Fr (11) this season, it bodes well for the coming season(s).
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Several Gator teams have won championships this season, both team and individual.
As of April 30th 2019, UF remains in the Top 10 of the Director's Cup standings.
That may not hold, as our spring sports are not doing as well as normal. We'll see. Incredible that the softball team got a #5 seed in the NCAA tournament. Lots of respect for the program and their SOS. Just hate that we're slated to host Tennessee in the Supers if both advance. Would rather play somebody new.
Current SEC-C's T&F - 2. M -- tied 5. W
Current Natl. Ranking, 4. M -- 10. W
Men's Golf currently headed to the NCAA West Regional.
Women's Golf headed to NCAA Championships, they tied for 2nd in their Regional.
6. NCAA Men's Swimming & Diving
24. NCAA Women's Swimming & Diving
4. Men's Tennis currently in NCAA Quarter-Fnals
24. Women't Tennis went out of the NCAA's in the 2nd Rnd.
19. W-Lacrosse, out in NCAA 2nd Rnd.
Current Natl. Ranking, 4. M -- 10. W
Men's Golf currently headed to the NCAA West Regional.
Women's Golf headed to NCAA Championships, they tied for 2nd in their Regional.
6. NCAA Men's Swimming & Diving
24. NCAA Women's Swimming & Diving
4. Men's Tennis currently in NCAA Quarter-Fnals
24. Women't Tennis went out of the NCAA's in the 2nd Rnd.
19. W-Lacrosse, out in NCAA 2nd Rnd.
They got arms all over the team. They just need to develop the Fr and further develop the consistency in the older guys.
RHP/INF Mick Biasucci rsJr
RHP Felizx Garcia rsJr
RHP Tyler Dyson Jr
OF/LHP Austin Langworthy Jr
OF/RHP Kirby McMullen Jr
RHP/INF Garrett Milchin rsSo
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LHP/1B Jordan Butler So
RHP Jack Leftwich So
RHP Tommy Mace So
RHP Hunter McMullen So
RHP Justin Alintoff So
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RHP Hunter Ruth rsFr
RHP Nolan Crisp Fr
RHP Christian Scott Fr
RHP David Luethie Fr
RHP Nick Pogue Fr
RHP Ben Specht Fr
INF/RHP Kris Armstrong Fr
We do have a ton of high rated pitchers. But ALL of them pretty much sucked this year. That's incredible, but when you look at the stats that is exactly true. Not one pitcher with an ERA under 3.00 and only 3 under 4.00 (Langworthy, Leuthje & Pogue). Our "star" pitchers, Mace & Leftwich were at 5.40 and 6.94. Team ERA was 5.40, over 7.00 vs. the SEC. Horrible!! That doesn't give me any confidence about any of the returning pitchers, although I'm sure a few of them will improve. How much is anybody's guess. But I don't think youth is a valid excuse. We've lost AA picthers numerous times in the past and there were always guys ready to replace them without us missing a beat. Mace, Leftwich & Dyson had the experience and supposed talent to step into the shoes of Singer, Kowar, etc. They simply couldn't do it.
Logan Shore came in as our Friday night starter as a freshman and did a great job for 3 years. Hudson Randall was a solid starter as a freshman and got better each year. Karston Whitson was 8-1, 2.40 ERA as a freshman weekend starter, was doing fine as a sophomore and then got hurt. A.J. Puk and Kirby Snead contributed consistently as freshmen. I could go deeper, on and on, adding guys who relieved as freshmen or threw midweek as freshmen and then moved to weekend starters as sophomore and did great for 2 years, like Faedo. My point is that in most cases pitchers either have it or they don't, especially when it comes to pitching in the SEC.
Mace & Leftwich were really good as freshmen pitching midweek games and they did OK later in the year in relief during SEC games as freshmen. Dyson had that super 3-week stretch in the postseason helping us win the National Title as a freshman. But some pitchers either can't handle the pressure or simply don't have the talent, to be consistent weekend starters in the SEC. Apparently O'Sullivan didn't see that level of talent from the highly-rated group of freshman pitchers he brought in this year to put them in the rotation over Dyson, Mace & Leftwich until the season went in the tank. And when he did finally use them, they weren't successful. Maybe a freshman or two in next year's class will be that good, like Shore, Randall, etc. Maybe a few of this year's group gets better in the off season to step up his game. Kevin O'Sullivan is a great coach, a great recruiter and is excellent at developing pitchers for MLB. He's probably as stunned as anybody about how the entire staffed tanked this year. He will get it fixed and it will be interesting to see which guys emerge as THE guys next season. I know this year's team was hard to watch.
Logan Shore came in as our Friday night starter as a freshman and did a great job for 3 years. Hudson Randall was a solid starter as a freshman and got better each year. Karston Whitson was 8-1, 2.40 ERA as a freshman weekend starter, was doing fine as a sophomore and then got hurt. A.J. Puk and Kirby Snead contributed consistently as freshmen. I could go deeper, on and on, adding guys who relieved as freshmen or threw midweek as freshmen and then moved to weekend starters as sophomore and did great for 2 years, like Faedo. My point is that in most cases pitchers either have it or they don't, especially when it comes to pitching in the SEC.
Mace & Leftwich were really good as freshmen pitching midweek games and they did OK later in the year in relief during SEC games as freshmen. Dyson had that super 3-week stretch in the postseason helping us win the National Title as a freshman. But some pitchers either can't handle the pressure or simply don't have the talent, to be consistent weekend starters in the SEC. Apparently O'Sullivan didn't see that level of talent from the highly-rated group of freshman pitchers he brought in this year to put them in the rotation over Dyson, Mace & Leftwich until the season went in the tank. And when he did finally use them, they weren't successful. Maybe a freshman or two in next year's class will be that good, like Shore, Randall, etc. Maybe a few of this year's group gets better in the off season to step up his game. Kevin O'Sullivan is a great coach, a great recruiter and is excellent at developing pitchers for MLB. He's probably as stunned as anybody about how the entire staffed tanked this year. He will get it fixed and it will be interesting to see which guys emerge as THE guys next season. I know this year's team was hard to watch.
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It was just crazy. Like Bizarro world. Who would have thought in a million years that a pitching staff Sully recruited and coached up would just suck across the board? Like you said even guys who performed last year fell apart. Like Jordan Butler looked like a star in the bullpen and couldn’t get anyone out. Mace, Leftwich, Dyson... just unreal.
UF's Men's Golf Team ended their season at the NCAA Regionals in Pullman, Washington, finishing tied for 9th with Purdue & Kent St. in a field of 14. Only the Top 5 in each regional advances to the NCAA Championship field next week.
Is anybody watching the UF/Missouri baseball series starting tonight that will close out Florida's disappointing baseball season?
Is anybody watching the UF/Missouri baseball series starting tonight that will close out Florida's disappointing baseball season?
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