Gator Baseball Gator Baseball: UF vs. Miss. St.

FireFoley

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Top ranked UF travels to Starkville for the final SEC series this Thursday-Saturday. UF is coming off taking 2 of 3 at home against UGA and clinching the SEC regular season title. There is really nothing to play for along with the SEC tourney to follow, but taking the series would mean winning all 10 conference series and that would be a huge accomplishment. But regardless of the outcome of the weekend and the SEC tourney, we are guranteed a top 8 seed and if we win this weekend probably the #1 overall seed, which I know DZ would not like, LOL. I just hope we play well and am interested in the following: Can Wil Dalton begin hitting again? Can Reese field a routine grounder and then not throw it away? Can we not make baserunning mistakes? These are small things but those are the things that need to be shored up. Would like to see a step forward by Leftwich and hopefully Dyson will be ready and can get some work to see if he can throw a strike? If not perhaps he will be shelved and that would hurt pitching depth.
 

Ancient Reptile

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Top ranked UF travels to Starkville for the final SEC series this Thursday-Saturday. UF is coming off taking 2 of 3 at home against UGA and clinching the SEC regular season title. There is really nothing to play for along with the SEC tourney to follow, but taking the series would mean winning all 10 conference series and that would be a huge accomplishment. But regardless of the outcome of the weekend and the SEC tourney, we are guranteed a top 8 seed and if we win this weekend probably the #1 overall seed, which I know DZ would not like, LOL. I just hope we play well and am interested in the following: Can Wil Dalton begin hitting again? Can Reese field a routine grounder and then not throw it away? Can we not make baserunning mistakes? These are small things but those are the things that need to be shored up. Would like to see a step forward by Leftwich and hopefully Dyson will be ready and can get some work to see if he can throw a strike? If not perhaps he will be shelved and that would hurt pitching depth.
Mostly agree, but base running and errors are not small imo.
 

Ocalaman

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Dalton has really tailed off the last 3 weeks and being in the middle of the lineup he needs to get it going again. I read somewhere that Dyson was diagnosed with a shoulder issue, got cortisone injections and is shelved for 7-10 days. Don't know if that's true, but I read it on another board. Gators don't want to share the league title, so need to win at least 1 to guarantee they are the sole SEC champs. They, also, have won something like 19 straight regular season series dating back to last year and I'm sure would like to keep that streak alive. And I agree that the baserunning blunders need to get cleaned up.
 
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FireFoley

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Just got home and see Mace is starting and not Singer. Is Sully just pushing Singer and Kowar back just to keep them on a 7 day schedule or is he going to give them the weekend off and just pitch other guys and use Singer and Kowar in the SEC tourney Does anyone know?
 

dz_23

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I think this squad could handle the number 1 overall seed. With the huge expectations from winning the CWS to winning every SEC series, I have alot of confidence in these young men.

I was thinking about how special this year has been. Short of B2B ships, this year would probably be a disappointment but man I’m impress with how this team has handled the expectations.

I remember thinking everytime we had runner on 1st last year I wanted to choke Sully for not bunting them over. Just now with leadoff double, Sully does not bunt, Harv strikes out and Liput singles to score the run. Different makeup to this team. My Only Concern for potentially getting and winning in Omaha would be our lack of sacrifice bunting. To this point, we have not needed to do so much. Again, different makeup.

We shall see.
Go Gators
 

Fishon

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Just got home and see Mace is starting and not Singer. Is Sully just pushing Singer and Kowar back just to keep them on a 7 day schedule or is he going to give them the weekend off and just pitch other guys and use Singer and Kowar in the SEC tourney Does anyone know?
Singer will pitch tomorrow and Kowar on Saturday. I guess that's subject to change, but that's what I read today
 

Ocalaman

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Mace is pitching great, leading 3-0 going to the bottom of the 7th. But we've had 3 caught stealing. The last 2-3 weeks our baserunning has been pretty bad.
 

Ocalaman

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Jordan Roberts relieves Mace with 1 out in the bottom of the 7th and gives up a 2-run homer. If we lose this game it'll be because of poor baserunning and failure to capitalize on multiple scoring chances early in the game. Hopefully, Byrne can do his thang and get another save.
 

BMF

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Just got home and see Mace is starting and not Singer. Is Sully just pushing Singer and Kowar back just to keep them on a 7 day schedule or is he going to give them the weekend off and just pitch other guys and use Singer and Kowar in the SEC tourney Does anyone know?

He wants them pitching on their usual day ("Friday night starter").... Good move. Miss State has had a rough year w/ their coach getting caught having an affair w Begley and all....
 

dz_23

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Early hook on Mace I thought. Easy to say now. Lets get um tomorrow

Go Gators
 

Ocalaman

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Gators are losing this game now because of their own sloppy play. Schwartz throws an attempted sac bunt into centerfield and then Byrne gives up a triple. Miss. St. up 4-3, runner on 3rd 1 out. Byrne then gives up a 2-run homer, we're down 6-3 and Byrne stands to be the losing pitcher if the Gators don't mount a comeback in the 9th. Byrne getting pounded.
 

FireFoley

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Gators have choked away a 3-0 lead and now trail. It will not matter in the long run, but the takeaways are that Mace was outstanding and probably could have pitched more. Gators should have blown the game open early but could not make contact and ran themselves out of innings. Then another horrendous defensive play by JJ involving his arm opened the floodgates. This is an excellent team, but lack of small ball ability as well as JJ's inability defensively could be things that bite them in the tourney. Perhaps we can get them tomorrow. But Mace did not walk anyone and even tho Cowbell is awful, throwing strikes gets you outs, as Cowbell's rally was started by a leadoff walk!
 

g8tr72

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I would really like to know what Sully's reason was to interrupt the normal schedule/rotation that has been so successful on the last week of the regular season. After an uncharacteristic slaughter of the Gator bullpen, now MSU has a ton of momentum heading into the last two games.

Mace was spectacular, even better than I had hoped, and I didn't have an issue with Sully pulling him early.

Head coach Kevin O'Sullivan on Tommy Mace: "In the grand scheme of things, he threw outstanding, even more than I thought. I probably could have left him in there in the seventh but I was really trying to be careful about him coming away feeling good about himself because we'll really need him down the stretch. He gave up three hits over 6 1/3 and I thought he was outstanding and that's exactly what we needed. That's kind of what we got last year from Tyler Dyson. It was a shot in the arm down the stretch."

Kudos to MSU for staying in the game late and not giving up.
 

FireFoley

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Last night's game affirms the fact that base running and errors are not small things.

You are 100% correct, and neither is "small" ball. I thought there were a few opportunities with men on base and no outs to SAC bunt, but that is not Sully's MO, even with the bottom of the order. Also when they try to do it, outside of Liput, their bunting form seems bad. I do not think it is practiced hardly at all even in college or the high school level.
 

g8tr72

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You are 100% correct, and neither is "small" ball. I thought there were a few opportunities with men on base and no outs to SAC bunt, but that is not Sully's MO, even with the bottom of the order. Also when they try to do it, outside of Liput, their bunting form seems bad. I do not think it is practiced hardly at all even in college or the high school level.


That was highlighted ad nauseam during the 2017 CWS vs LSU.
 

rogdochar

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In a way last night's loss can be a good exercise. Now, our backs are against the wall if we want to maintain the series winning streak in tact i.e. tonight's game becomes an elimination game = MSU can eliminate us from our series streak. So Gators, make the next two "must wins" vs MSU.

I hope Sullivan is proven smart for "tweaking" our pitching rotation. It's panicky to think that there's so little margin for error in post-season tournament games. And that's where were headed, quickly.
 

FireFoley

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In a way last night's loss can be a good exercise. Now, our backs are against the wall if we want to maintain the series winning streak in tact i.e. tonight's game becomes an elimination game = MSU can eliminate us from our series streak. So Gators, make the next two "must wins" vs MSU.

I hope Sullivan is proven smart for "tweaking" our pitching rotation. It's panicky to think that there's so little margin for error in post-season tournament games. And that's where were headed, quickly.


I have been critical of Sully in the past regarding some fundamentals, etc, but I think his decision to start Mace was wise for a few reasons. It keeps Singer and Kowar on the 7 day thing and probably allows Leftwich to start game 1 of the SEC tourney. For UF, this series and the SEC tourney is somewhat meaningless, so getting guys extra work in game situations could prove vital. Also, I am hoping Sully is expecting ZERO from Dyson here on out, so trying to find another reliable arm could be huge. And if Dyson can get somewhat back to throwing strikes, then it becomes a bonus. Both Mace and Leftwich have good arms, so getting them as much time as possible is important.
 

Ocalaman

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Singer scratched from Friday night's game due to a hamstring issue, supposedly minor. Leftwich gets the nod and gives up 2 in the bottom of the 1st.
 

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