Gators vow to keep working on 'little things' as big wins like Tuesday's over FSU pile up
Wednesday, March 14, 2012 | Baseball, Men's Basketball, Scott Carter
GAINESVILLE, Fla. --The season-opening series against Cal State Fullerton was a test. So was the three-game road trip to Miami.
The No. 1-ranked Gators passed both, the only blemish a loss to Fullerton in the final game of a three-game series.
Still, the Gators viewed Tuesday night's opponent -- No. 6-ranked Florida State -- as their most difficult challenge yet.
No problem. The Gators aced the Seminoles by seven runs, winning 9-2 in front of a record crowd of 6,005 at McKethan Stadium.
“This is the toughest team we've played,'' said outfielder Preston Tucker, whose three-run homer in the third inning put the Gators up for good. “It was a great warm-up for us.”
It was also UF's school-record-tying 14th consecutive win, matching a mark the Gators have reached twice before -- in 2001 and 2004.
After Tucker's homer erased a 2-0 deficit, Florida coach Kevin O'Sullivan turned it over to the bullpen. Relievers Greg Larson, Steven Rodriguez, Daniel Gibson and Austin Maddox allowed just three baserunners in the 21 batters they faced.
Here's the deal: Florida is 16-1 and hosts Vanderbilt on Friday with a chance to run its winning streak to 15 games.
Winning 15 consecutive games in any sport is difficult if you keep score, but the Gators have made it look relatively easy.
The only one-run game they have played during the streak is Sunday's 3-2 win over Florida Gulf Coast University.
Most of the victories have featured similar scores as to Tuesday's win, the Gators' fifth consecutive victory over the Seminoles at home.
Make no mistake, the Seminoles weren't playing too shabby when they showed up at the ballpark Tuesday. The Seminoles owned a 10-game win streak that fell victim to Florida's torrid pace.
Afterward, the Gators tried to downplay talk of their hot start, instead saying how they still need to work on "the little things."
“We've still got to do things on the field that we've got to perfect,'' said Rodriguez.
This from a player who was perfect Tuesday, pitching three perfect innings -- nine up, nine down.
When asked what the Gators can improve on, Rodriguez offered this: “The bunt game. We've got to work on that.”
Sounds funny when you consider that by the way the Gators are hitting -- they are tied for the national lead with 26 home runs -- they probably don't need to bunt much.
Tucker added this to the we-can-get-better mantra.
“We left too many men on base,'' he said. “We did score a lot of runs but I think we could have done a better job with that.”
O'Sullivan added something to the list as well.
“We missed a couple of signs, a couple of hit-and-run signs,'' he said. “That needs to get cleaned up. Overall, I mean how disappointing can you be.”
When you are 16-1, ranked No. 1 in the country and own a 14-game win streak, the biggest challenge might just be perfecting those little things.
You know, things like laying down better bunts, cleaning up missed signs and leaving fewer runners on base so you can score 14 runs instead of only nine.
If the Gators get those issues solved, good luck to the rest of the SEC. They'll need it.
