![The Florida bench keeps an eye on the field durning and NCAA baseball game at Condron Family Ballparkin Gainesville, FL on Friday, April 17, 2026. [Alan Youngblood/Gainesville Sun]](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,x_0,y_0,w_2947,h_1657/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/ImagnImages/mmsport/213/01kpjv4s2bn0d959mbkm.jpg "The Florida bench keeps an eye on the field durning and NCAA baseball game at Condron Family Ballparkin Gainesville, FL on Friday, April 17, 2026. [Alan Youngblood/Gainesville Sun]")
One of the common defenses of the Gators over the last couple of years is that Florida doesn’t have the NIL budget that some of its rivals in the SEC have, so when it comes time to compete against the big boys around the country, they simply aren’t able to afford the players needed to return Florida to the heights most fans are used to.
Well, at least someone is playing defense because this weekend’s series loss against Auburn can almost squarely be pegged on Florida’s inability to do so. And rather than worry about spending money on NIL, perhaps someone should drop $30 on the old Tom Emanski defensive drills videos and send it Florida’s way.
Florida simply can’t play defense
We are, of course, being tongue-in-cheek, and Florida does work on defensive drills like every other team in the country. But whatever it is they have done in the offseason and in practice, it hasn’t translated to gameday.
Florida is now up to 44 errors through 41 games this season. It doesn’t take a math major to know that over an error a game. Among the teams around the country with a better fielding percentage than Florida:
- Wofford
- Charleston Southern
- Lamar
- Radford
- Toledo
We’re going to take a wild guess that Florida’s NIL budget is higher than those five teams combined, and yet those five teams have all figured out how to field the baseball. The thing is, the inability to field the ball this year isn’t in a vacuum. The Gators have struggled with the basics over the last two years, and a large reason why ECU beat them twice last year in Regionals was Florida’s inability to play clean baseball.
Florida’s still in a decent position to potentially host Regionals thanks to its RPI and large amount of Quad 1 wins on the season. And if Florida can just field the ball, this is a team that could very much wind up in Omaha.
But until Florida stops getting outclassed by U12 kids from the old Tom Emanski videos, the possibility of a 0-2 weekend in Regionals is also very real.
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