Florida Baseball traveled north to Missouri and everything went south

The running theme for Florida Baseball in 2024 is that they can't win a midweek game but have been able to squeeze out series wins all season long. Entering their series against Missouri, the Gators had yet to be bested in a three game weekend series and betting odds would have indicated there was little reason to expect that to change while in Columbia.

But after finally winning a midweek game, Florida watched everything fall apart as the Gators were swept by the lowly Tigers as they were unable to pull off their highwire act once again.

Florida Baseball: Things Fall Apart

In a not so fun stat, Florida entered the series having trailed at some point in every single SEC game it had played in 2024. But having taken the series from Miami, Texas A&M, LSU, and Mississippi State there was minimal reason to believe why the 12-18 Tigers who were 1-8 in the SEC were going to trouble the Gators.

Game 1: Florida managed two hits in 11 innings and were walked off 2-1

Game 2: Florida took a 3-2 lead in the sixth inning after a Jac Caglianone home run only for Missouri to take the lead right back off a wild pitch. Florida lost 4-3.

Game 3: Caglianone wasn't sharp on the mound, and Florida fell behind 7-1, only to fight its way back and take a 10-8 lead. In the ninth inning, the Gators loaded the bases with no outs, only for Ty Evans, Colby Shelton, and Luke Heyman to all strike out. The baseball gods didn't like that, and Missouri scored three in the bottom of the ninth.

"Yeah, our situational hitting was not good this weekend. We've gotta go back to the drawing board and we've gotta get better at it. I don't know what else to say other than it's disappointing. Some of our hitters, they were getting spin the entire weekend, 3-2 sliders and we struck out way too many times. I mean, the bottom line is we've gotta get better and we've got to executionally hit way better. It's extremely disappointing."

- Kevin O'Sullivan

Nationally the Gators have drawn the ire of people who have felt they were ranked too high given their midweek struggles. Their saving grace of winning every weekend is not out the window too.

This weekend might have sunk any hope Florida had of a top eight seed for the NCAA Tournament, which would have put the Gators in line to host a Super Regional, and frankly is going to force Florida to scratch and claw its way back just to get a top 16 seed to even host the Regional round.

The reality for Florida is that its lineup just isn't as deep as it was a year ago and unless Caglianone is Superman it goes stagnant in a hurry. Evans is the only other Gator with a batting average over .300 and while Tyler Shelnut and Shelton do have an OPS over 1.000, the back end of Florida's lineup falls of a cliff faster than Wile E. Coyote chasing after Road Runner.

Florida has no choice but to hop back on the wagon as it will face FSU on Tuesday and South Carolina this weekend.