Baseball is a sport where making over-the-top declarations based on one game is usually foolish. We have seen over the years from Florida where the Gators look anemic midway through the season only to turn things around and make a run to Omaha.
But on Saturday afternoon at Condron Family Ballpark, there was no getting around the Gators looked like a team that didn't belong as Florida fell to Georgia and is now 0-5 in SEC play.
Florida Baseball: Back To The Drawing Board
Part of the real problem facing the Gators right now that no one can control is the injuries to their starting rotation. Liam Peterson missed his start on Friday due to "general soreness," Pierce Capolla left against Miami and hasn't been seen since, and Jake Clemente just came back last week after missing a start.
Billy Barlow stepped in on Saturday and we'll just say it didn't go well. He made it 3.0 innings and gave up six earned runs. It's not like Barlow was the victim of circumstance either as five of the seven hits he gave up went for extra bases.
The conga line of pitchers that followed wasn't much better, as Florida gave up 17 hits on the day, 11 of which went for extra bases. Add in eight walks from the Gator pitching staff, and the end result was Georgia having 17 runs cross the plate.
If you want an idea of how bad the beatdown was, the SEC Network didn't even bother sticking around for the bottom of the 9th and instead opted to show introductions to the SEC Gymnastics championships.
It's not like they missed much back in Gainesville because the other very real problem is that Florida's hitters looked overmatched all afternoon. Georgia pitcher Brian Curley kept pounding the zone and Florida looked tardy to everything. All the Gators could muster over the five innings Curley was in was two singles and two walks.
The good news for Florida is that at the end of the day, it's just one game, and while they are 0-5 in SEC play, we know if you let Florida get hot, they can still make a run to Omaha.
But while Omaha is the ceiling, Saturday was a reminder of the floor for a team still struggling to find itself in SEC play.