Top-ranked Gators embrace road test that awaits in Miami against No. 8 Hurricanes
Friday, March 2, 2012 | Baseball, Football, Scott Carter
By first pitch tonight, Alex Rodriguez Park will be full of loud and rowdy Miami Hurricanes baseball fans. That's a given.
The Gators are in town and that has always meant something in this rivalry. It means even more when Florida is ranked No. 1 in the country and Miami No. 8. And then there is this: Florida has ended Miami's CWS dreams the past three years and has won eight consecutive against the Hurricanes.
The Gators will not be walking into friendly confines for their first road game of the season.
“Everyone in Miami is a Miami fan. Not a whole lot of Gator fans out there,'' senior outfielder Preston Tucker said.
“They're going to be a lot of people rooting against us,'' outfielder Daniel Pigott said. “It's definitely a different atmosphere.”
From his perch in the visiting dugout, Gators coach Kevin O'Sullivan will observe the scene closely with a heavy emphasis on watching how the Gators respond.
The Gators have won five in a row since losing the final game of a season-opening home series against traditional power Cal State Fullerton. But this will be different, especially for true freshmen like 2B Casey Turgeon, 3B Josh Tobias and a stable of young pitchers that O'Sullivan may need to call on.
The positive for O'Sullivan is that the Gators have yet to play the way he knows they can. To have a successful weekend in Miami, the Gators will have to be at their best.
“I just know it's going to be a difficult weekend for us,'' O'Sullivan said. “The timing of this weekend is probably pretty good for us. We have not played our best baseball. It will give us a barometer of where we're at. For this team to get where it needs to get to it needs to be in an environment like this.”
The series is important to Miami for different reasons. The Hurricanes once owned Florida in baseball but since O'Sullivan took over the program, the tide has turned. And in dramatic fashion.
Florida advanced to the CWS two years ago by defeating Miami in a super regional in Gainesville and when the Hurricanes visited last postseason, Florida sent them packing for the summer. The Gators knocked out Mississippi State the next weekend for a second consecutive trip to Omaha.
Veteran Miami coach Jim Morris has tried to forget that the Canes have lost 11 of the last 12 games against the Gators.
“I'm pretty good at turning the page,” Morris told the Miami Herald. “Talent-wise, they're the best team in the country. They're loaded.”
The Hurricanes' roster isn't too shabby, either.
Sixth-year senior Eric Erickson, a big lefty who has battled back from two major arm surgeries during his career, will start in Game 1 of the series against Florida ace Hudson Randall. Catching Erickson will be newcomer Pete O'Brien, a player the Gators are already familiar with.
O'Brien played at Bethune-Cookman and was a third-round pick in last summer's MLB Amateur Draft but opted to spend the season with the Hurricanes. He is hitting .500.
The biggest news coming out of Florida's clubhouse relates to the status of sophomore right-hander Karsten Whitson, whose availability in Miami remains uncertain. If he feels good to pitch, he could start Sunday's Game 3.
Whitson is experiencing the typical dead-arm syndrome that often inflicts pitchers in spring training or early in the season. O'Sullivan said all tests showed Whitson's arm is structurally sound and that the Gators will take a cautious approach until Whitson feels comfortable returning to the mound.
“He will not go on the mound again until he feels 110 percent,'' O'Sullivan said. “I expect that to be sooner than later. He's got a special arm and like any of our pitchers, we're going to take special care.”
