Carter: Gators Have a Team Built to Contend as Postseason Approaches
Saturday, May 16, 2015 | Baseball, Scott Carter
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Since its last trip to the College World Series in 2012, the Florida baseball team has not missed the NCAA Tournament.
The same will be true in 2015. The Gators polished off the regular season on a warm Saturday afternoon at McKethan Stadium with a 3-1 comeback win against Auburn.
It was Senior Day, and fittingly, the team's two seniors played important roles.
Third baseman Josh Tobias snapped a 1-1 tie in the sixth inning with his two-run homer that easily cleared the fence in left-center field. And with two outs in the ninth and a runner on first, Florida coach Kevin O'Sullivan called on lefty Bobby Poyner to get the final out with the tying run at the plate.
Poyner needed only three pitches to earn his fourth save, retiring Auburn's Jackson Burgreen to end the game.
“It's perfect,'' first baseman Pete Alonso said. “They have put a lot of sweat into the program. They deserve the results they got here today on their special day.”
Alonso's towering home run onto Stadium Drive behind the right-field wall in the second inning accounted for the Gators' other run. The only question prior to Saturday's game regarding the NCAA Tournament centered on whether the Gators deserve one of the eight national seeds.
They won't find out the answer until after next week's Southeastern Conference Tournament. They made a strong case during the regular season.
After losing Thursday night's series opener against the Tigers, Florida won the final two games to finish the regular season 40-15, 19-11 in the SEC. It's only the sixth time in school history the Gators have reached 40 wins in the regular season, and the first time in four years.
“It's getting more and more difficult getting 40 wins in the regular season,'' said O'Sullivan, in his eighth season. “It's not like it used to be. To be able to get to 40 wins with the SEC schedule and the out-of-conference schedule, that's pretty special. I'm pleased with how we came back after a tough Thursday night.”
In a series defined by good pitching – each team scored eight runs in three games – Florida scratched out another win Saturday in the final game. Florida is 9-1 in the final game of a three-game series against SEC opponents this season.
The Gators want to take that ability to finish off opponents with them to Hoover, Ala., next week for the SEC Tournament, and then to the NCAA Tournament.
The No. 7-ranked Gators are certain to host a regional the first week of the NCAA Tournament and will find out on Memorial Day if they will be home or away in the Super Regional should they advance that far.
Amidst the uncertainties is this fact: this is a better Florida team than the ones that advanced to the postseason the past two years.
The stands behind home plate were filled with professional scouts Saturday to watch players such as Tobias and Poyner, and a strong junior class that includes shortstop Richie Martin, outfielder Harrison Bader and pitcher Taylor Lewis, who earned the victory with 4 1/3 scoreless innings in relief of freshman starter Alex Faedo.
This is the best Florida team since the one that made it to Omaha three years ago and surprisingly got swept.
Tobias and Poyner are the only two players still in the program that were on the active roster for the 2012 CWS. The first four hitters in the lineup then -- Nolan Fontana, Preston Tucker, Mike Zunino and Brian Johnson – are all still playing professionally.
Zunino is in his second full big-league season with the Mariners, Tucker made his major-league debut this week with Houston, and Fontana (Astros) and Johnson (Red Sox) are both playing in Triple-A. Another member of that team, reliever Paco Rodriguez, was the first player from the 2012 team to make the big leagues.
Who knows if the 2015 Gators will one day produce a crop of big leaguers. They certainly have a chance.
More important to O'Sullivan and his staff is this team's chances in the postseason.
“We showed we win a lot of different ways,'' O'Sullivan said.
Florida has lost six consecutive NCAA Tournament games since that 2012 team barely had time to unpack in Omaha. To get back to Ameritrade Stadium, they will have to snap that streak.
First, they want to build off a strong finish to the regular season at next week's SEC Tournament.
“It's good to go into the tournament with a win under your belt, and obviously for the seeding as well,'' Tobias said.
Added Alonso: “We wanted to come off a win. We won a tough series last weekend, fell behind this week early, so we had to come out and win. Momentum is everything. Overall I think we are playing really well.
“Going into the tournament and playing good baseball is really important because it's like a postseason feel. All the pieces are starting to come together and we're looking to make some noise in the tournament.”
The noise Saturday came off the bats of Tobias and Alonso, and the right arm of Lewis.
The Gators won another series when they fell behind. They hope that kind of magic continues well into June.
