Coming into Tuesday’s game against FSU, Florida could be described as a banged-up team that also had mounting frustrations following a rough week that featured a loss to Jacksonville and a series loss to Ole Miss.
The cure for Florida’s woes? A midweek game against FSU as the Gators reminded the Seminoles who runs the Sunshine State, no matter what the rankings say.
Florida finishes sweep against FSU with 4-3 win
Adding to Florida’s mounting injury woes, it was announced that Jackson Barberi was slated to miss multiple weeks due to an oblique injury. Brendan Lawson was also out with an illness, and Blake Cyr has a concussion, and it would have been understandable if things went south.
And even though Florida was far from perfect, with baserunning and fielding woes still prevalent, the Gators got a solid start from Cooper Walls that was followed up by 2.2 scoreless innings from Cade McDonald. Eventually, Joshua Whritenour came in for a five-out save to atone for his blown save on Sunday.
A three-run 5th inning, capped by a Karson Bowen RBI single, provided the gap Florida needed to hang on until the end. Hayden Yost and Cole Stanford also hit solo home runs.
Death, taxes, beating FSU
It is somewhat comical that FSU pulled out all the stops and had their band present to play the one song they know on national TV, only to still fall short. The Seminoles are ranked 5th, while Florida is unranked, and the Gators still pulled off the sweep.
It makes one wonder what Florida’s record would be if it got to play in the ACC compared to the SEC? Because for all the flaws Florida has had over recent years, the Gators are now 5-0 against the ACC this year and are 23-9 against the ACC over the past five seasons.
Whritenour’s outing feels like a perfect juxtaposition because Ole Miss was all over him on Sunday while FSU looked like they had seen a ghost.
The wild part too is that for all of the frustrations Florida fans have had this year, Tuesday’s win is now the 9th Quad 1 win of the season, the second most in the country.
As we said following the Ole Miss series loss, the floor for Florida still screams 0-2 in Regionals because of the lack of consistency this squad has shown. But when they put things together as they did on Tuesday, even on a night where they were not perfect, the ceiling for this team is also still Omaha and beyond.