Florida Baseball: Plate discipline must be better for Gators to emerge

Last night was tough for Florida baseball as the Gators fell to LSU 4-3 in 11 innings. Wyatt Langford had a line drive off his bat at 110 MPH in the 10th inning that would have been the game-winner before a hero catch in left field saved the game.

But in truth, Florida would have stolen the game rather than walking away as deserved winners. And if they want to give themselves a better chance today at victory to keep the season alive, it will start with their overall approach at the plate.

Florida Baseball: Sometimes you need to walk rather than run

Brandon Sproat only lasted four innings after throwing 111 pitches. His stuff wasn’t bad or that poorly located, but LSU did a phenomenal job of either fouling pitches off or laying off pitches that Sproat had gotten a swing-and-miss on all season.

Had this been against Missouri, Sproat goes eight innings of shutout baseball.

The contrast was evident as Ty Floyd struck out 17 Gator hitters in eight innings of work. And while Florida was able to scratch across three runs over those eight innings and was five outs away from winning the game, too frequently the Gators lacked zone discipline, especially considering the strike zone was incredibly tight from the home plate umpire (until it magically wasn’t in the bottom of the 11th).

Specifically, Florida hitters went chasing fastballs above the zone and never caught up.

Yes, Florida was inches away from winning the game, but it was also a minor miracle they even had the chance to win it as LSU left 17 runners on base compared to Florida baseball just leaving six. LSU had eight walks to two for Florida and 11 hits to the Gators’ six.

If that plays out again today, the odds that Florida is able to hold the fort and come close to victory is slim.

Kevin O’Sullivan knows this, and we will see if Gator hitters change their approach today.