It has felt like at times that anything that could go wrong has gone wrong for Florida Baseball. The Gators have continued to be cursed with injuries, and all season long, it has felt like once one guy is ready to come back from injury, and a different guy then goes and gets hurt.
That theme continued last night against Alabama, but as has been the case over the last six weeks it didn't derail the Gators as Florida came from behind to win 7-6 and bring their SEC record to 13-13.
Death Doesn't Like That It's Being Cheated By The Florida Gators
Final Destination Bloodlines officially comes out today in movie theaters and if you aren't familiar with the franchise, most movies go like this:
The main character has a premonition of some mass disaster (plane crash, highway crash, rollercoaster crash, etc), they panic and get out of the situation before it happens along with some members of their group, then the disaster actually happens and they themselves are saved, only for all of them to eventually be killed off anyway in over the top ways under the guise that death doesn't let you get away.
So who knows who on Florida's roster had a vision of everyone getting hurt, but one-by-one it has seemed that no one on the Gators can stay healthy, and seldom is it anything Florida did wrong.
Last night, the Gators lost Luke Heyman for the year after he took a pitch to the forearm, and it was confirmed after the game that Heyman has a fractured arm.
Justin Nadeau also had to leave the game after jamming his finger, though his prognosis looks better.
Mind you, this is on top of Colby Shelton, Cade Kurland, and Kyle Jones all being out, and Florida literally ran out of field players to form a lineup.
Enter Blake Brookings, a 6'5" sophomore who played in seven games last season, who Florida was hoping to redshirt this season.
Brookings played a key role too, as Florida fell behind 5-0 early, as Liam Peterson didn't have his best stuff. Landon Stripling, who had to enter for Heyman, scored off a wild pitch in the 4th, had an RBI in the 5th, and eventually came around to score himself to pull it to 5-4.
With a score of 6-4 in favor of Alabama, Brookings came up in the 6th and hit a double, his first ever collegiate hit, and eventually scored off a Bobby Boser single.
The stage was set for Brody Donay to come up in the 7th and launch a home run to right field to take a 7-6 lead, and Jake Clemente closed things out for the win.
Gators Boys Stay Hot
Whatever injury curse that has been trying to track down the Gators, they have stayed ahead of it and are now 13-13 in SEC play and 36-18 overall.
For a team that was left for dead six weeks ago by many around the country, including us, Florida is now 11th in RPI and is a lock to make the NCAA Tournament.
The real question is whether or not Florida can now make a bid to host an NCAA Regional. If Florida wins one of the final two games against Alabama and wins a game in Hoover, it would be almost impossible not to let Florida host.
Game two is tonight at 6:30 PM.