Gator Baseball Fall Practice Evaluations
Sunday, November 2, 2008 | Baseball
As the Gator baseball team heads into the final stretch of its fall workouts, assistant coach Brad Weitzel shared more observations on second-year head coach Kevin O'Sullivan's team. The squad will play the Orange and Blue World Series next Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 8-9.
"While our pitching has been strong, we have been encouraged that the returnees are better and the newcomers' stuff is really good. The competition is fierce for who will be pitching this spring, and there will be some difficult decisions on how to spread out the innings once the regular season starts."
"There is still plenty of room for improvement with our defense and we have tried to step up the repetition of taking ground balls in practice to prepare for game situations. Our base-running is an aggressive style that puts pressure on opposing pitchers and their defense. We are 38-for-51 on the basepaths already."
"As an offense, we are hitting .224 with three home runs. Although we are striking out too much, when you factor in the caliber of pitching that they are facing and using wooden bats, these are normal results. Overall, we are happy with the older players' willingness to teach the freshmen and newcomers since the leadership skills are evident."
"To this point, we have played 18 scrimmages and the score between the Orange and the Blue is 8-8-2. We place the teams in different situations and usually have games lasting anywhere from three to six innings. The losing team has to run so the players are definitely getting after it, especially in a condensed game format. The winner and loser of each game often comes down to strategy so whichever squad executes better usually wins."
"Senior Avery Barnes (High Springs , Fla.) has been hitting well lately and is going the other way a lot more. He is the toughest player on the team to strike out and is 10-for-11 on stolen bases this fall. Avery went 3-for-4 on Tuesday and all four at bats could have resulted in hits."
"Senior Brandon McArthur (Seffner, Fla.) seems to be ahead of schedule on his rehab and has been getting at bats during several of our scrimmages. Although he is not playing defense on a regular basis yet, he has been taking ground balls in practice."
"Junior catcher Buddy Munroe (Miami, Fla.) has played well the past two days, going 2-for-3 with two stolen bases yesterday and 1-for-2 on Tuesday. During a scrimmage last week, he hit a home run to left field on a hitter's count (2-0) that wound up as the game-winner. Buddy has calmed down at the plate and seems more relaxed when he is batting."
"Junior Mike Mooney (Loxahatchee, Fla.), a newcomer from Palm Beach C.C., leads our team with a .390 batting average and has an on-base percentage of .462. He has also been hit five times and will do whatever he can to reach base."
"Right now, the "quarterback" of the infield has been junior Clayton Pisani (Naples, Fla.). We have all been impressed with his leadership skills and are happy Clayton is trying to show off his experience as an older player on the roster."
"Freshman Jerico Weitzel (Ridgway, Pa.) is seeing live pitching more since returning to the field and his at bats during the scrimmages are getting better. He has played solid defense at second base and seen time at shortstop as well. Another freshman, catcher Ben McMahan (Windermere, Fla.), had a two-hit game on Wednesday."
"The team leader with 13 runs batted in this fall, junior Matt den Dekker (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) has been strong defensively and has hit two of our three homers during the intra-squad games. He led off each inning yesterday and was 3-for-8."
"With a .310 average, freshman Preston Tucker (Tampa, Fla.) has also been working very hard to improve his defense at first base. We have been pleasantly surprised at how quickly he has gotten better within the infield."
"Senior left-hander Stephen Locke's (Tampa, Fla.) change-up has been really good and freshman RHP Anthony DeSclafani (Freehold, N.J.) has shown an electric fastball and overpowering stuff. Junior Tony Davis (Cooper City, Fla.) has 16 strikeouts in 15 innings and has allowed seven hits, a positive sign."
"Redshirt freshman Justin Poovey (Granite Falls, N.C.) is throwing his fastball in the 90-93 miles per hour range and has been working on his fastball and changeups as part of his rehabilitation process."
"A pair of freshmen left-handers, Nick Maronde (Lexington, Ky.) (0.69 ERA, 13 IP, 16 K, 9 H, 6 BB) and Alex Panteliodis (Tampa, Fla.) (1.38 ERA, 13 IP, 11 K, 10 H, 1 BB) have been ahead of the time frame for a typical rookie. Junior RHP Jeff Barfield (Perry, Ga.) (1.32 ERA, 13 IP, 13 K, 8 H, 5 BB) has an overpowering fastball and a devastating slider."
"Of all the returning pitchers, junior righty Kyle Mullaney (Jacksonville, Fla.) has shown the most improvement. He has slowed down his delivery and is using his changeup more often. While his numbers might not be as eye-popping as some of his teammates', we are seeing rapid progress."
"Freshman RHP Will Jolin (Guilford, Conn.) has a really good slider and has totaled 14 strikeouts in 10 innings and junior RHP Billy Bullock (Balm, Fla.) has tried to help the younger kids and become a leader. Because he threw a lot last season and played in the Cape Cod League over the summer, we have limited Billy to four innings so far. He has responded with six strikeouts in the four innings, with just one hit and a walk."
-UF-
