Don’t think it’s rose colored to credit a team for playing to a top 16 seed in a brutal conference, even in a “down” year. That’s been my only point. And also that you don’t know what you’re talking about. 2 for 2 not bad!
Spring Sports Thread
- Thread starter ocalaman
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My opinions are backed by facts, yours by emotion. They've had an underperforming year to this point by anyone's standards. The announcers have talked about it both games, sportswriters who covers UF athletics have talked about it all year and O'Sullivan has acknowledged it as well. Virtually anyone with an understanding of baseball and the standards set by Sully over his tenure at Florida knows this team has not played up to their potential - at least so far. How they got swept by Arkansas is just a part of their 19 losses. Not bad by normal D1 standards, but not acceptable by Gator standards and the talent level on this team. Only you seem to be unable to acknowledge these truths. And what the last 2 days are showing is that the talent is there and has been there for them to go on a run and win the whole thing, regardless of the opponent. The goal of all Gator coaches is to #1 win the SEC and #2 be a player at the national level. Sully has won 5 SEC titles plus 2 SEC tournament titles and finishing 6th is not up to the standards he set for the program. You sound a lot like Insta trying to rationalize Mike White by saying making the NCAA tournament and winning 1 game every year equals great success, even though he's not won an SEC title of any kind in 6 years. Gator baseball has won a bunch of championships under Sully and it is darn good when in a down year they are hosting a regional. But the fact remains that for the season they underachieved their goals and expectations by not playing up to their potential. What I have said is simply repeating what virtually everyone who knows anything about Gator baseball has said. So it seems that you're the one who doesn't know what they're talking about.
Best part of these two wins is hopefully it builds some post season momentum. All house money at this point as far as I'm concerned with the SEC tourney. Let's see how we do tomorrow against a Bama team that seems to have mo as well.
I agree. I've been a lurker but I thought it was striking how similar bradley sounded like instigator. I remember in the last basketball season that many people would point out the constant inconsistency of the basketball team, and Insta would defend MW with a bunch of stats or tried to validate MW based on a few recent games that they did well, as if the entire season didn't matter as a whole.
Back to the the team though, not only were there high expectations for the team this year, but it is further expected when UF were 16-1 last year before the season was cut short. Sure, not everybody is back(as far as I know), but there shouldn't be this high of a drop-off. I can't remember a year in Sully's tenure when the closers were so bad. UF was actually winning against Arkansas at the 7th inning of two of those games. On the third game the relief gave Arkansas the opportunity to put the game away.
IF you think well that's just because it's Arkansas.......well you would have to be ignoring many other games against worse teams that had similar results.
As Ocalaman said, there is talent. There's enough talent to win the whole thing this year. And IF UF is fortunate to do it, it doesn't mean that the flawed playing earlier in the season didn't happen nor that it shouldn't have been called out. This team could easily go 0-2 in their regional as well and not many people would be shocked.
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I'm actually glad that Alabama won, not just because I hate UT, but because if the bammers are anything this year.....they are a comeback team(18 comeback wins). Frankly, regardless how late in the year it is, our closers need as much experience as possible getting put in pressure situations before the regional begins.
Ocala, can we get Fabians batting average with runners in scoring position? It's got to be around .100. I've never seen a hitter leave more guys standing on the base paths.
You know, I was just wondering the same thing. How many runners has he left stranded over the season? Most of his HR's are solo shots and he's not done a good job of even advancing runners with his at bats. Lots of K's and pop-ups. I know yesterday one of the announcers said that in our 19 losses Fabians batting average is .141 with 45 strikeouts. They were stressing how important it is for him to be productive in order for the Gators to win.
Gator baseball pulling away from Alabama, 7-0 in the Top of the 8th. Franco Alemon has pitched his best game all year. Through 7 innings, 4 hits, 2 hit batters, a walk, 4 K's. Defense has been great. Alemon picked off a runner at first, Guscette threw out a runner trying to steal 3rd, Rivera has made some nice plays. Young & Hickey have homers, Acton has 2 hits and 3 RBI, Thompson has 3 hits, the team has 12 so far. Win and get Friday off, then play the winner of Tennessee/Bama in the tournament semifinals Saturday.
Bob Redmon reported that after the game O'Sullivan said Mace, Barco & Alemon are done for the weekend. He will start either Scott or Sproat Saturday. To win the tournament guys are going to have to step up on the mound and the lineup has to keep producing.
Smart in my opinion. No need to jack up someone's arm for a meaningless tournament. The real deal starts next week.
Here's some updated info. on the MLB draft: When the season started, Jud Fabian was shown as the first non-pitcher selected in the MLB draft. On May 25, 2021 MLB. com put out a prospects rankings list and Jud was listed at #17, Tommy Mace at #34, Nathan Hickey at #135, Jack Leftwich at #145. No other Gators in the Top 200. Of our 2021 high school commits, RHP Andrew Painter is #18, RHP Chase Petty is #25, OF Jay Allen is #37, LHP/1B Jac Caglianone is #61, OF Michael Robertson is #91, LHP Phillips Abner is #107, SS Jake Fox is #193. Right now we have 21 commits, 12 of them pitchers, the #1 ranked class for this year. It will interesting to see how many of these guys actually enroll in school in the fall.
I think Allen actually signed to play for Florida in November.
cbs12.com
Also, looks like Robertson signed to play for Florida in November:
www.yoursun.com
I think Allen actually signed to play for Florida in November.
Rams quarterback Jay Allen signs to play baseball at Florida, 'a dream come true'
If you were to scroll through Jay Allen's Twitter, you would think the John Carroll senior would be on the brink of committing to a Division I college football program. And you may have gotten the division right -- but not the sport. The Rams quarterback recently signed his national letter of...
cbs12.com
Also, looks like Robertson signed to play for Florida in November:
SIGNING DAY: Robertson locks in commitment to UF, four other Indians also sign
While many high school athletes hoping to be recruited might have been sent into a panic by the coronavirus pandemic earlier this year, Venice High baseball player Michael Robertson had
Gator Tennis Captain Wins Singles National Title:
floridagators.com
Riffice Wins NCAA Singles National Championship - Florida Gators
Gator captain wins Florida's first singles title since 1999
floridagators.com
Florida softball dropped the opener of their Super Regional 4-0 to unranked Georgia. Mary Wilson Avant tossed a 3 hitter against the Gators (2 doubles by Lindaman and a single by Lindsay), with 9 K's. She mixed up her pitches well and kept Gator hitters off balance the whole game. Natalie Lugo threw well for Florida until the 7th inning. She gave up a solo HR in the 3rd, but then in the 7th gave up a 3-run HR that put the game away. Florida needs to win Saturday and Sunday to go to the World Series and keep their season alive. Remember is was #16 Georgia who knocked then #1 Florida out of the Super Regionals in 2 straight games in 2016, after we had won back to back national titles.
Gator softball season is over. Got shut out 2 days in a row by Mary Wilson Avant and beaten by a team that ended the season with 7 straight losses and was 7-17 in the SEC. Successful year in that they won the SEC regular season title and went into the post season ranked #4. I think Coach Walton got as much out of this team as he could, but it's still tough to see the season end the way it did.
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I actually watched the softball game from the American Sports Saloon in the Quarter today. That was fun. The loss sucks
Gator baseball gets #15 seed in the NCAA tournament. We open our Regional at Noon Friday on the SEC Network against South Florida. South Alabama & Miami play later in the day. If we win our Regional we will have to travel to face #2 Texas for Supers unless either Southern, Fairfield or Arizona State knocks them out.
Sully's refusal to move Fabian out of that 3 spot is baffling. Once again he comes up with 2 on and no outs and proceeds to zap our mo. Gators down 2-0 in the 3rd. Not looking great for the good guys.
Agree. So far all the little things have gone the way of the Bulls. Thompson barely missed catching a HR, their left fielder made a great catch on a Fabian drive to the fence, Armstrong missed a double down the line by inches, Thompson, they snagged a bullet off Thompson's bat and now Mace's day is probably done early due to weather. But give USF credit - Mace only made a few bad pitches and they made him pay with a double and 2 HR's. We've squandered several opportunities to take the lead. Hope the delay will get them focused to win this game, but the bullpen needs to be tough.
Delay really hurts us. Mace was pitching well, low pitch count, and could have easily gotten to or at least through 7.
Yea, but the relievers often have given the game away, or come close to it, in many of the 7th-9th innings of past games. If Mace did last till the 7th inning the ultimate result likely would have remained in a close scoring game. I have zero confidence in the relievers to hold anybody off, especially if it's for multiple innings. I hope Sully makes it his #1 focus in the offseason to get some better relievers.
Mace, while ultimately not playing horribly, played true to form in struggling early. Im not trying hammer players for the sake of it, but just expressing that regardless of the weather this game was not an anomaly.
This was just another example of what we've seen all season long. Hope it works out, but I can't see UF winning 4 straight. I hope Im wrong.
I agree with your analysis. Mace is a very good pitcher and will probably get drafted in the 1st or 2nd round. But to me he never pitched up to the Friday night ace status of guys like Logan Shore, Nick Faedo, Hudson Randall, etc. He developed a pattern of grooving a couple of fastballs or hanging a slider 3-4 times a game and got burned. He, also, gets easily aggravated whenever the ump doesn't give him a called 3rd strike, loses his focus for a few pitches and gave up key hits quite often throughout the season. He did that today. The bullpen did, in fact, lose a bunch of games this year and overall was not very reliable. Christian Scoot was the only consistently dependable reliever the first 2/3 of the years, but during the back end of the season was simply bad. He went 1 stretch where he gave up 7 home runs in 12 innings or so of relief. The team, overall, did not live up to the pre-season hype nor the expectations of Sully, as he has said as much several times. Although not over yet, the season has been a disappointment, what with a 6th place finish in the SEC. But when your "down" year is being a Top 15 seed, that ain't bad.
Yep, agree with both. Extremely unlikely we can win 4 straight. Not sure who would pitch. Tough year for sure.
Lol This may be beating a dead horse, but to give some context on today's loss I found out some interesting things from an article.
"The USF Bulls were the only No. 4 regional seed to win Friday"
"USF ended the regular season 24-26 after being picked last in the American Athletic Conference, and it had to win its league tournament to get into the NCAAs."
"The USF Bulls were the only No. 4 regional seed to win Friday"
"USF ended the regular season 24-26 after being picked last in the American Athletic Conference, and it had to win its league tournament to get into the NCAAs."
I don’t understand why we didn’t do our best at the SEC tournament. Sully said he wasn’t using Mace, Barco or Aleman at all last weekend. Was our momentum zapped?
We did do pretty good in the SEC tournament. We didn’t lose a game until the SEC semi-finals where it then became a single elimination game. In general the team has been inconsistent all year and just didn’t meet expectations.
Another example of our inconsistent year. Tough draw with USF being familiar with us.
Today is looking like a repeat of yesterday. I was hopeful Sully would shake up the batting order. Hanging on by a thread here.
Damn, South Alabama running us out of the gym. What the hell happened to these guys. They look like they have no interest being out there.
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