It's a put up or shut up until further notice weekend for Florida Baseball
There is some angst building around Florida Baseball. In one breath one could argue there is no need to panic as Florida has won all three of their weekend series and their struggles in weekday games are due to pitching depth issues that won't matter within SEC play.
But in another breath there are reasons to believe that Florida is being propped up in the polls based off last season and their top ten ranking is not reflective of the 2024 squad.
The good news for Florida is that if they want to prove they are a genuine top ten team in 2024 and a real threat to make it back to Omaha this summer, a top tier opponent is in town to give Florida a genuine gauge of where they stand as SEC play opens.
Florida Baseball: Let The Games Begin
Texas A&M is undefeated on the season and ranked 4th in the D1 Baseball poll. The Aggies are 24th in the country it hitting with a team average of .320 and 15th in runs scored.
This creates a challenge but also opportunity for the Gator pitching staff to take a step forward it has yet to take in 2024. After hinting he might shuffle some things around with the pitching staff, Kevin O'Sullivan has opted to keep his rotation the same heading into this series.
Leading things off tonight will be Cade Fisher. After getting lit up on opening night, Fisher had two decent starts against Columbia and Miami before getting tagged early against St. Mary's last week. Fisher has yet to go past five innings in a start and has given up at least three runs in three of his four starts despite the brief outings.
Taking the bump Saturday will still be Liam Peterson. Like Fisher, he has yet to go past five innings this season and has only gone past four innings in one of his four starts.
If this weekend goes south for Fisher and Peterson, it is hard to envision Florida being able to win a slugfest like they did St. Mary's last week. Texas A&M comes to town with the best team ERA in the country at 2.01.
A series loss this weekend will make it hard to continue to rank the Gators among the elite until they showcase otherwise.
But if given the backdrop of everything mentioned the Gators are able to get a solid outing and scratch across some runs to emerge with the series win, then we might come back on Monday saying rumors of their demise were greatly exaggerated.