Yeah, but girls are smarter than boys, so they get academic scholarships.
UF Softball & Baseball
- Thread starter ocalaman
- Start date
Gator baseball needs a W tonight against georgia. Dawgs saving their ace for tomorrow. Need this one big time.
Couldn't ask for a worse start. dawg pitcher gets out of first with no damage, then our ace Barco gets absolutely lit up...5 hits and 2 runs. Lucky it wasn't more than 2. Doesn't bode well for the weekend....
Gators give up 3 runs in bottom of 9th with 2 outs to lose game 1 7-6. A walk and hit batter then back to back hits ended it. dawgs have their ace going tomorrow and he's been basically unhittable. Our best hope to avoid a sweep will come on Saturday. This is a young young team with 21 total freshman and these are hard lessons.
Women's track team just won the indoor natty....so we've got 2...
Baseball and softball are in a slump right now. Letting Georgia off the hook with base’s loaded and no outs was huge.
Well, women's basketball is doing fairly well. Which is odd enough, but considering how football, basketball, and now baseball is shaping out...its like things have flip-flopped.
If this is the price of the women doing well in basketball, I want a refund.
UF baseball drops to 18-10, 3-6 in the SEC, losing 5 of their last 6 conference games, getting pounded by Georgia today 14-8. Even more humiliating is that former Gator castoff Nolan Crisp was the Bulldogs's starting pitcher today and shut the Gators out for 4 innings before getting roughed up a little and relieved in the 5th. Florida came back from a 2-1 deficit to take a 6-2 lead in the 5th, only to have the bullpen fall apart and surrender 8 in the 7th and 3 more in the 8th to seal the loss. Brandon Neely was stellar in relief, coming in for starter Garrett Milchin with no out and 2 on in the 1st and getting out of that mess, and then throwing 4 more solid innings, giving up on 1 run. Phillip Abner pitched a good 6th, but was relieved by Tyler Nesbitt after walking the first 2 batters in the 7th. Nesbitt then gave up 6 hits, including 2 HR's, and 6 runs before retiring the side. Karl Hartman gave up 3 more runs in the 8th to complete the humiliation.
Thursday night the Gators came from a deficit to tie the game and then take a 6-4 lead in the top of the 9th on a 2-run HR from Jud Fabian, only to have the bullpen give up 3 runs in the bottom of the inning for a 7-6 walk-off for Georgia. Ryan Slater and Blake Purnell were the pitchers who blew that game. And Friday night, Brandon Sproat threw an excellent 5 innings, before finally tiring and giving up 3 runs in the 6th, as the bats just couldn't get any clutch hits. Nic Ficarrotta gave up 3 more runs in 1/3 of an inning in the bottom of the 8th to seal a 6-1 loss for the Gators. Just a horrible exhibition by the team as a whole, as they wasted some good individual efforts on the weekend. What are the answers, as the season seems to be slipping away, especially with Arkansas, Tennessee and Vanderbilt being our opponents over the next 3 weekends?
Thursday night the Gators came from a deficit to tie the game and then take a 6-4 lead in the top of the 9th on a 2-run HR from Jud Fabian, only to have the bullpen give up 3 runs in the bottom of the inning for a 7-6 walk-off for Georgia. Ryan Slater and Blake Purnell were the pitchers who blew that game. And Friday night, Brandon Sproat threw an excellent 5 innings, before finally tiring and giving up 3 runs in the 6th, as the bats just couldn't get any clutch hits. Nic Ficarrotta gave up 3 more runs in 1/3 of an inning in the bottom of the 8th to seal a 6-1 loss for the Gators. Just a horrible exhibition by the team as a whole, as they wasted some good individual efforts on the weekend. What are the answers, as the season seems to be slipping away, especially with Arkansas, Tennessee and Vanderbilt being our opponents over the next 3 weekends?
Gator softball evened their series with Auburn with a 7-6 win today, improving to 29-6, 6-5 in the SEC. Lexie Delbrey pitched 3 innings, only giving up 1 hit, but it was a HR after a walk. Natalie Lugo threw the last 4 innings to get the win and go 7-2, although she gave up a HR after a walk in the 6th and then 2 more runs in the 7th on 2 walks, a double and a triple, getting the final out with the tying run on third. The Gators were paced by Hannah Adams, who went 3-4, but the Gators had 13 hits on the day and an RBI from 6 different players. What proved to be the winning run scored when Kendra Falby scored the Gators final run in the top of the 5th when she got a 2-out single, stole second and scored on a throwing error that bounced off her helmet and rolled nearly to the outfield fence. The rubber game is Sunday at 2 pm, but it sure seems like the Gator pitchers just aren't going to be able to hold up consistently against quality teams. They will sure be tested, needing to beat Auburn Sunday, then host #3 FSU Wednesday and #4 Alabama next weekend for a Sat., Sun., Mon. Series that is covered on ESPN2 for the 1st 2 games and the SEC Network for the final game.
Well crap. This season on the diamond seems to be shaping up to be ugly. I knew that Thursday's game was important. They are so young I just don't see it happening this year. 21 freshmen is a ton.
Finally got to watch the Gator girls play today and they are so up and down. Pitching is gonna have to tighten up if they plan on doing anything this year. They aren't gonna be able to out hit everyone in every game.
Candidly Georgia not that good. Their pitching outside of their ace has been awful. Unfortunately shaping up to be a long season.
UF softball won their 30th game of the season against 6 losses and improved to 7-5 in the SEC by beating Auburn Sunday 3-0. Elizabeth Hightower pitched her best game of the year, a complete game 3-hitter, with 2 walks and 5 K's. Florida only got 7 hits against Maddie Penta, the winningest pitcher in the SEC with 18, but they pinned her with her 3rd loss, while Hightower goes to 10-2. The game was scoreless until the top of the 5th when Cheyenne Lindsey doubled and was driven in on a single from Katie Kistler. In the 6th inning, Skylar Wallace and Hannah Adams singled to lead off the inning, Reagan Walsh delivered a 1 out RBI single and then Adams scored on a wild pitch. Charla Echols, playing with a bandaged wrist after being hit Friday and sitting out Saturday, continued her struggles by going 0-3, plus dropping an infield pop up in the 6th inning. Her batting average now stands at .272 and is steadily falling. The Gators host #3 FSU Wednesday night and then #4 Alabama comes to town for the weekend. Big test for the Gator team, who has only played 9 games against teams in the Top 25, but is 6-3 at this point.
Second year in a row that the pitching has not been there for sully. Odd, as all these guys were all big time recruits and Sully is/was one of the best pitching coaches in the business. Gators bullpen used to come at you from everywhere with hot arms. Just hasn’t been the case and this year seems we are currently short starters behind Barco. Maybe a matter of sully figuring out who he can trust? Too bad, because the lineup is there, and these guys play defense.
They have some good results. Series win at Miami and beating FSU. But they have to win some SEC series.
UF baseball blasted FAMU 13-3 Tuesday night to improve to 19-10. Nick Pogue pitched a perfect 3 innings, Nick Ficarrotta threw 2 innings, giving up only 1 hit, Tyler Nesbitt & Phillip Abner threw an inning each, giving up no hits and only 1 walk from Abner. Timmy Manning had a bad 8th, giving up 3 runs on 3 hits, plus committing a throwing error. Blake Purnell closed out the 9th only giving up 1 hit. Gator pitchers had 10 K's with only 1 walk. Offensively, they had 17 hits, plus 7 walks, with the Fabian brothers getting a home run each in the same inning, BT Riopelle hit a 3-run HR. Jud Fabian, Wyatt Langford & Josh Rivera had 3 hits each, while Deric Fabian and Mac Guscette had 2 hits. Arkansas comes to town starting Thursday night. Huge series.
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Elizabeth Hightower starting in the circle for UF at 6 pm vs. FSU. She's 10-2 with 1 save, 1.83 ERA, 80.1 innings pitched, 57 hits, 36 walks, 74 K's, 5 HR allowed. FSU starts redshirt junior Danielle Watson. She's 11-2, 1 save, 1.54 ERA, 82 innings pitched 49 hits, 27 walks, 98 K's 4 HR allowed. The Gator starting lineup has a season batting average of .350, 211 runs, 298 hits, 187 RBI, 111 walks, 24 HR and 107 K's. FSU's starting lineup has a season batting average of .330, 195 runs, 267 hits, 189 RBI, 141 walks, 35 HR and 105 K's. Goooo Gators!!!
Gator softball loses to FSU 4-2 in 10 innings. Florida only managed 1 earned run on 9 hits and 5 walks, stranding 12 base runners. Elizabeth Hightower was solid, throwing 7 innings, giving up 2 runs on 7 hits, 2 walks and 7 K's. Natalie Lugo took the loss, giving up a leadoff HR in the top of the 10th, plus another hit that came around to score after she was relieved by Haley Pittman. The Gators had plenty of chances to score, getting a leadoff double from Kendra Falby in the bottom of the 1st and leaving her stranded at 3rd; in the 3rd they got an unearned run and had runners on 1st and 2nd with 1 out and couldn't score again; they left the bases loaded in the bottom of the 5th after getting 4 singles and only scoring 1 run; and in the bottom of the 9th they had a runner on 2nd with 1 out, then runners on 1st & 2nd with 2 outs and just couldn't get the big hit. It's been a problem for the Gators all year, even in wins. They don;t hit many home runs (only 24 on the year) and just have trouble getting big hits with runners in scoring position. They drop to 30-7, FSU goes to 36-2, with Alabama coming in for a series starting Saturday. Crucial weekend for this Gator softball team.
The Gator girls are good against cupcake teams but are NO match for top 15 teams. Cant put a good game together with pitching and hitting against a great team.
Echols struggling is only part of the problem, IMO. The entire team leaves too many runners stranded. As a team they just don't hit well with runners in scoring positions and have too many non-productive outs. With only 24 home runs in 37 games, they have to rely on more small ball than in the past and too many strikeouts and pop-ups with runners on base, combined with needing to string together 3-4 hits in an inning to score is hurting them, even in games they win that turn out much closer than they should be.
Pitching is #2 in the SEC in ERA, Fielding is #1 in the SEC. Opposing batting average is .178 (#2 is Bama at .201), we've allowed the fewest runs and fewest home runs, but are next to last in most walks given up. We have the 4th highest team batting average, 10th in slugging percentage, 1st in total hits, 5th in RBI, last in home runs hit with only 26, 3rd in fewest strikeouts, 1st in sac. flies, 1st in stolen bases by a huge margin. I can't find the stat for runners left on base, but I would bet we are dead last in the department. From watching almost every game, our pitching is not great, but good enough. Fielding as always is great and most offensive stats are at or near the top of the SEC. Where we are hurting badly is in the power department and clutch hitting, which is killing us.
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UF baseball continues their SEC slide, losing their home opener to Arkansas 8-1. Hunter Barco started great, having a perfect game through 3 innings, only throwing 30 pitches. But in the bottom of the 4th he hit the leadoff batter with 2 strikes, then issued a 1 out walk. The Razorback runners executed a double steal on a swinging 3rd strike, then scored their first run on a bloop infield single that fell between the pitcher and shortstop. They got their 2nd run on the 5th after another hit batter, a sac. bunt, a single to right field and a throwing error on Sterlin Thompson. Their 3rd run came on a solo HR leading off the 6th, ending Barco's night. Tyler Nesbitt, Philip Abner and Blake Purnell scuffled through 3 scoreless innings of relief, but Nick Ficarrotta gave up back to back HR's to lead off the 9th, then gave up 2 more hits plus hit a batter before being relieved by Anthony Ursetti. Nic Fic was charged with all 5 runs that scored in the inning. Meanwhile, the Gator offense got a leadoff single from Colby Halter in the 1st inning, but he was thrown out trying to steal. A walk to Jud Fabian was their only other base runner until the bottom of the 8th, when Kendrick Calilao singled and Josh Rivera walked, but were left stranded. They h=got a meaningless run in the bottom of the 9th on a double from Halter, a balk and a ground out RBI from Sterlin Thompson. The Gators were outhit 12 to 3, dropping to 19-11, 3-7 in SEC play. Friday's game is at 6:30 pm on SEC+, with Brandon Sproat, probably, getting the start for Florida. This is not looking like a Florida baseball team that has much confidence and they need to dig within themselves ASAP before the season gets completely away from them.
With the upcoming schedule we could be staring 3-15 in the face...ouch! Need to pick off a few wins as the second half of the schedule is much easier.
I just don’t understand what has happened to Florida pitching. These guys are all big time recruits. Something is off with Florida baseball the last two years.
Still time to turn it around but they better start winning some SEC games.
Still time to turn it around but they better start winning some SEC games.
Yea, last year was a huge disappointment considering the year before, that was cut short due to covid, had UF looking like a beast and the clear favorite to win it all. They were like 19-3 or something before the season ended. Then the next seasonwas a quick exit from the regionals. This year's team looks worse. That sweep against Alabama earlier in the season? Alabama is tied for last in the West. FSU is looking mediocre. The wins UF has gotten is mainly from irrelevant teams.
The pitching is suffering, but its the relievers giving the games away or allowing opponents to put the games out of reach. It would not surprise me if the relievers are giving away more runs than the starters(overall total).
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We actually didn't sweep Alabama. Won 2 out of 3 when they scored 2 in the bottom of the 9th of game 3 to beat us 8-7. Then we lost 2 out of 3 to LSU and got swept by Georgia last weekend. But you are right about the pitching. Barco has been steady and at times great and Sproat has had a couple of good starts. No clear 3rd starter has emerged and while we're winning most of our midweek games, he's using a bunch of pitchers to just piece together innings. And the bullpen has been absolutely horrible, like you said. And it's different guys falling apart on the mound. One game, a couple of guys will look OK and then the same guys get blown up their next time on the mound. No consistency at all and no one has stepped up as a reliable one to call on in a tight game. Our pitchers have given up 237 hits in 266 innings, which isn't terrible, but they have 103 walks and 47 hits batters. That's a lot of extra base runners
Pithing is 70% of baseball and right now UT and UGA have the best rotations going. I think UF has talented arms they are just not consistently hitting the zone and this causes the Ump to miss borderline strikes. The frustration came to a head against Arky.
Youre right, maybe I overwrote my memory on the bama series because of how badly things have been lately.
Gator baseball snapped a 6 game SEC losing skid, beating Arkansas Friday night 7-2 behind great pitching from Brandon Sproat and Blake Purnell. The Gators came into the game last in the SEC in ERA vs. SEC opponents, at over 8 runs per game. But Sproat threw over 100 pitches in 5.2 innings, giving up 7 hits, 2 walks and 1 run with 5 K's, getting 2 double plays to help his cause. Purnell threw the last 3.1 innings, giving up 1 run on 3 hits with no walks and 1 K. Offensively the Gators scored 2 in the 1st, 2 in the 2nd, 1 in the 3rd and 2 in the 5th on 8 hits, 3 walks and 3 sac. flies. They got solo HR's from Wyatt Langford and BT Riopelle, who both had 2 hits on the night. Solid game and a much needed win for Florida, who improved to 20-11, 4-7 in the SEC, with the rubber game on Saturday at 1 pm on SEC+. Two interesting facts given by the announcers - When Florida gives up 5 runs or less they are 17-2. As a team we came into this game hitting, I think they said, .187 vs. SEC pitching. Saturday's game is huge and my guess is the starter will be Ryan Slater, with Johnny Wholestaff on stand-by.
Needed this W. Arky is really good. Also heard after last nights game we had lost 6 straight to the hogs, so good to snap that streak too.
This UF baseball team is loaded. Great hitting throughout the lineup. Very sound defensively (although a couple of errors last night). Obviously the pitching is the issue. They have some really good arms but are wild. Hitting batters, too many walks and putting on lead off hitters way too much. This is all correctable. I believe Sully will get it done.
I heard a couple of weeks ago they are one of the youngest teams in the nation. 21 freshmen.
I actually think we were 17-0 in the Covid year when the season got canceled
