Carter's Corner: Four games, four wins, four thoughts

during the Gators' game against the Siena Saints on Saturday, February 17, 2018 at McKethan Stadium in Gainesville, Fla. / UAA Communications photo by Allison Curry

Senior catcher JJ Schwarz is off to a solid start in his final season. (Photo: Allison Curry/UAA Communications)

Carter's Corner: Four games, four wins, four thoughts

Tuesday, February 20, 2018 | Baseball, Scott Carter

The top-ranked UF baseball team hosts Bethune-Cookman tonight at McKethan Stadium.

By: Scott Carter, Senior Writer

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- The No. 1-ranked Gators have pulled back the curtains on the 2018 season, and if early returns are an indication, they have a chance at being the state's top major league team this year based on the payroll-slashing Marlins and Rays.

OK, OK, maybe that's a stretch. Chris Archer is a two-time All-Star and Brady Singer has yet to face a big-league hitter, but four games into the 56-game regular season, I might take the Gators in a spring exhibition over the current Marlins or Rays.

Florida improved to 4-0 on Tuesday night with a victory over Florida Atlantic. The Gators will try to make it five in a row tonight at McKethan Stadium when Bethune-Cookman pays a visit.

The Wildcats are 1-3 after losing on Tuesday night to Jacksonville, but you may recall they took the Gators to the limit in last spring's Gainesville Regional under former head coach Jason Beverlin, who left in the offseason to join the Toronto Blue Jays organization.

It's still early folks – the Gators are just 7.1 percent through the regular season – but so far, so good for Kevin O'Sullivan's team. Four games, four wins.

Here are four quick thoughts on what we've seen from the reigning national champions:

1. The starting pitching has picked up where it left off last summer in Omaha. The weekend rotation of Singer, Jackson Kowar and Tyler Dyson combined to go 3-0 with a collective 1.35 ERA (20 IP, 13 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 21 SO) in a three-game sweep of Siena. Singer was especially sharp in his debut, allowing only two hits and one run (unearned) in a win over the Saints on Friday night. Sixty-two of Singer's 89 pitchers were strikes. Florida's weekend rotation is as good as there is in the country, but we got a glimpse of one of the team's projected midweek starters on Tuesday night and freshman right-hander Jack Leftwich was up to the task in a victory over Florida Atlantic. Leftwich retired 13 consecutive Owls at one point and struck out five in his collegiate debut. Where does Sully keep finding these guys? Leftwich was drafted by the Tigers in the 39th round last summer out of the TNXL Academy in the Orlando area. He started his prep career at Winter Park High before pitching for TNXL, a prep academy where students take online classes through the Florida Virtual School and focus on training outside of class. One start in, Leftwich looks like a quick study.

2. Senior catcher JJ Schwarz has been overly scrutinized much of his career at Florida. That's what happens when you have the type of freshman season Schwarz had in 2015. Three years later Schwarz remains the most feared hitter in the Gators' lineup and is off to a good start (6-for-15, 1 HR, 3 RBI, team-high 4 BB). Few envisioned Schwarz still at UF as a senior following his rookie campaign, but when he didn't hear his named called in last summer's MLB amateur draft until the 38th round – much later than coming out of high school (17th round) – Schwarz made a wise decision to come back and see if he can boost his professional stock. O'Sullivan named Schwarz captain and Schwarz has worked on improving his body language and taking a humbler approach. If Schwarz can maintain a no-pressure attitude and allow his natural abilities to guide him, there's no reason he can't have a monster season and continue his climb in several offensive categories in the school record books.

3. A key storyline entering the season was the absence of starting second baseman Deacon Liput, who is with the team but remains ineligible for an undisclosed off-the-field issue. The Gators will certainly welcome Liput back when he is cleared to return, but O'Sullivan isn't biting his nails in the dugout waiting on the call. At least not so far thanks to the play of junior Blake Reese, who is hitting .467 (7-for-15) with four doubles, a triple and five RBI in the first four games. Yes, Reese will cool off as the season progresses, but you have to like the way he has seized the opportunity to start. Reese isn't considered as strong defensively as Liput, but he has handled 19 chances (13 assists, 6 put outs) without an error and provided punch in the bottom third of the lineup.

4. You don't want to make too much of the small sample size thus far, but the hunch here is that most of Florida's newcomers won't be intimidated by the bigger stage. We'll find out more when the Gators travel to Miami this weekend, but outfielder Wil Dalton leads the team with seven RBI, multi-purpose freshman Jordan Butler (two scoreless innings, 1-for-2 at plate), shortstop Brady McConnell (Opening Night home run after early error) and freshmen right-handers Tommy Mace and Hunter McMullen have all contributed. A transfer from Columbia State College in Tennessee, Dalton has been the most impressive. Of course, there is still much we don't know about this team's identity. O'Sullivan warned after the season opener not to expect it to be smooth and easy until the postseason as some expect. Sage advice. There will be peaks and valleys as there always is during the course of a 56-game regular season. Still, with the trio of Singer, Kowar and Dyson on the mound during the weekends, this is a team built for success and resistant to long losing streaks.