Heading into Tuesday night's matchup with USF, the warning signs were there for Florida Baseball that it might be walking into a trap. The Bulls are a top 100 team in RPI, and the Gators were coming off a weather-delayed sweep against South Carolina, resulting in the team bus not returning to Gainesville until after 3 AM on Monday.
The end result was a sleepy performance by the Gators that resulted in a 7-1 loss at home that doesn't derail Florida's NCAA Tournament hopes, but it does make the path a bit more difficult.
Florida Gators lose to USF 7-1
Matthews Jenkins made his first appearance since March 19 and went 2.2 innings with no hits and seven strikeouts to provide hope of another competent arm for the Gators.
Florida used eight pitchers on the night, and four of them made it through their appearances without giving up a run, including Billy Barlow.
But Florida's bats looked like they were still taking a nap on the bus and struggled to string anything together all night. The Gators did scrape across a run in the 4th inning to make it 1-1, but that would be the only time all night Florida crossed home.
Things broke open in the 6th inning when Alex Philpott let the first three runners reach base. He was replaced by Luke McNeillie, who eventually had to be replaced by Barlow.
USF was up 5-1 after the frame, and Florida had 12 of its next 13 hitters make an out to seal the loss for the Gators.
How do NCAA Tournament hopes look?
The loss dropped Florida four spots in RPI, down to 19th. This was Florida's first loss of the season to either a Quad 3 or Quad 4 opponent.
The loss by itself doesn't derail the momentum the Gators have put together, but it does add some emphasis to this weekend against No. 1 Texas. The belief has been that if Florida reaches 12 SEC wins, they will be safe to make the NCAA Tournament, and they are currently sitting 11-13. Florida would need just one win over their final six to reach that 12-win mark.
But if hypothetically Florida were swept by Texas and dropped two out of three to Alabama, it would mean the Gators had lost six of its final seven heading into the SEC Tournament.