Florida Baseball: Wasted chances send Gators to loser’s bracket

It can be a cruel sport sometimes, and Florida baseball found that out firsthand in a 5-4 defeat to Texas Tech last night.

The loss puts Florida in an uncomfortable situation that it has been unable to escape the previous two seasons.

Florida Baseball: Game of inches

The model for the Florida Gators all season has been to outslug their opponents. The five runs surrendered by Florida were pretty much par for the course. Brandon Sproat went six innings, giving up three runs, and Ryan Slater gave up the game-winning two-run home run in the eighth inning to take his first loss of the season.

It would be easy to make the game a story about how the bullpen blew another game, but the bigger story was the missed chances Florida had on offense to bust the game open.

In the fourth inning, BT Riopelle smacked a ball to the left field gap. Jac Caglianone was off an running on the play from first, but the Texas Tech left fielder was able to hawk the ball down to save a run-scoring double. To make it worse, Caglianone was doubled off on the play as he was already to third base when the ball was caught.

In the fifth inning, Florida loaded the bases with just one out. Cade Kurland went chasing an outside offspeed pitch that grounded into an inning-ending double play.

Caglianone atoned for his base running error in the sixth inning when he launched a baseball over the left field fence to tie the game at 3-3.

With the game still tied at three, Caglianone came up again in the seventh inning. With Kurland on first, Caglianone was given new life after Texas Tech dropped a fouled pop-up. He very nearly made the Red Raiders pay, and he launched the ball to center field, but it was caught with the center fielder’s back against the wall.

The Path Forward

If any of these three moments had played out differently, the Florida Gators are probably in tonight’s winner’s bracket, and all would be well.

Instead, Florida is relegated to face UConn at 12 PM today in the loser’s bracket. Should the Gators survive, a rematch against Texas Tech is in store at 6 PM. And the Gators can win twice today, a winner takes all matchup to advance to the Super Regionals is tomorrow.

Last year, Florida baseball had to take this pathway after losing against Oklahoma, The Gators almost completed the journey back but fell short during the Monday game.

81% of teams that start Regionals 2-0 go on to win the Region. For Florida not to have another crushing postseason disappointment, they will have to find a way to buck that trend.

May the odds forever be in their favor.