Rotation set for opening series as No. 1 Gators get ready for season opener
Friday, February 18, 2011 | Baseball, Men's Golf, Scott Carter
Since that first season in 1912 the UF baseball team has played more than 3,500 games.
If not for a couple of World Wars that forced the Gators to not field teams in 1918, 1943 and 1944, Friday night's 2011 season opener would be the start of the 100th season in school history. That seems fitting considering the hype around this year's team.
The No. 1-ranked Gators open perhaps the most-anticipated season in school history thanks to a deep pitching staff and a starting lineup that returns eight regulars from last year's team that helped Florida make the College World Series for the first time in five years.
We finally get to see the Gators play Friday when USF visits for a three-game series. Florida coach Kevin O'Sullivan is ready for the first pitch. Like everyone else, he wants to see what the Gators can do on the field.
O'Sullivan held his final press conference of the preseason on Thursday and revealed his starting rotation for the season-opening series: Sophomore left-hander Brian Johnson on Friday, sophomore right-hander Hudson Randall on Saturday and freshman right-hander Karsten Whitson on Sunday.
Junior lefty Alex Panteliodis, who had offseason hip surgery, is also expected to pitch this weekend. O'Sullivan said Thursday he plans to start Panteliodis on Tuesday against Florida Atlantic.
While the opening weekend rotation is set, O'Sullivan said not to write it in stone.
“It's going to be a week-to-week thing,'' he said. “We've got like five or six options we can probably go to as far as starting pitchers. We have a lot of depth and that's probably our strength.''
The Gators (47-17 in 2010) have a strong rotation, but they'll face a strong 1-2 punch this weekend in USF's Randy Fontanez (5-7, 3.59 ERA) and Andrew Barbosa (8-2, 2.40). Both Fontanez and Barbosa were drafted in 2010 but opted to return to school for their final seasons.
In the series finale on Sunday, Florida fans will get a look at the hard-throwing Whitson, a first-round pick in June's amateur draft. Instead of signing with the Padres, Whitson enrolled at Florida and is one of the reasons this is potentially the Gators' deepest starting rotations in school history.
As far as Panteliodis, who led the team in wins (11), innings (100.0), strikeouts (82) and lowest average against by a starter (.234), O'Sullivan wants to see him pitch before throwing him back in a starting role.
“If everything goes hopefully the way we want to, he'll get out there Friday night and get his feet wet again,'' O'Sullivan said. “He hasn't seen live games since Omaha. He's been throwing great. He's ready to go.''
Meanwhile, the guy the pitchers will be throwing to – starting catcher Mike Zunino – will be calling more of the pitches this season. O'Sullivan protected Zunino some last year as a freshman, but he said Thursday that Zunino's experience and baseball IQ give him the “utmost confidence'' in Zunino's expanded role.
“He comes from a baseball background,'' O'Sullivan said. “He's been well-coached before he got here. He understands the position. He really separates defense and offense. If he strikes out or has an at-bat that he's not pleased with, he never takes it out to defense. That's what really what kind of separates him from any freshman catcher I've had in the past.''
What about the daily lineup? O'Sullivan said to expect plenty of shuffling early in the season as he searches for the best combinations.
“You're probably going to see two or three different lineups [this weekend],'' he said. “We're going to try different things and see what happens. We'll let the players figure out what the lineup should look like. We've got options. There are a lot of good players.''
First pitch on Friday is scheduled for 7 p.m. If you can't make the game in person, you can watch it live on Sun Sports.
