The Gators broke in Florida Ballpark with five scrimmages their first week of fall ball.
Numbers of Note: Fall Ball Week 1
Friday, October 30, 2020 | Baseball
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The first week of Florida Baseball's fall season wrapped up with Thursday's off day, which came after five scrimmages and nearly 30 innings of baseball.
The Gators, who finished last season ranked No. 1 in every major outlet and signed a highly-touted recruiting class, have another week of scrimmages beginning Friday with a six-inning contest. Here are some of the notable standouts and statistics from the first week's scrimmages.
.500 – Sophomore Jacob Young's batting average. The Ponte Vedra, Fla., native logged nine hits in a team-high 18 at bats, in addition to reaching base in 11 of his 20 plate appearances. Young, who will carry an 18-game hitting streak into the 2021 season, scored five runs opening week.
Although it is on four fewer plate appearances and six fewer at bats, freshman Wyatt Langford also posted a .500 batting average, with six hits, a pair of runs batted in, and four runs scored.
0 – Runs allowed by sophomore Christian Scott in four innings pitched. Scott struck out five and allowed just three baserunners (two hits, one walk). The Parkland, Fla., product led all UF relievers with 15 innings pitched last season, which he finished with a 1.20 earned run average.
2 – Home runs by freshman catcher Nathan Hickey. Picking up right where he left off at the end of the shortened 2020 season, Hickey blasted a pair of homers in a nine-inning scrimmage this past Wednesday, one of which was an opposite-field shot for the only run scored against junior starter Jack Leftwich. Hickey, who homered in four consecutive games prior to what ended up being Florida's final outing of the 2020 campaign, also scored a team-high six runs, smacked two doubles, and matched sophomore infielder Kris Armstrong and junior utility player Jordan Butler with a team-high four RBI.
4 – Other Gators hitting at least .300 thus far. The four not previously singled out who hit above the threshold opening week were Butler (.385), junior outfielder Brock Edge (.365), and freshmen Mac Guscette (.313) and Sterlin Thompson (.308).
Butler homered in the first scrimmage, while Thompson drew three walks and registered a .471 on-base percentage in 18 plate appearances, and Edge tallied a team-high four stolen bases and six hits, which were second only to Young's team-leading nine hits.
10 – Combined strikeouts-to-walks ratio by Leftwich, fellow junior starter Tommy Mace, sophomore Nick Pogue, and Scott. The quartet racked up 20 strikeouts against just two walks in 16.1 innings pitched.
Pogue's six strikeouts matched left-handed freshman Ryan Cabarcas for the team lead, and he allowed just one run on three hits. Leftwich tallied four strikeouts in four innings, with Hickey's home run being his only blemish. Mace amassed five strikeouts across four innings.
The Gators, who finished last season ranked No. 1 in every major outlet and signed a highly-touted recruiting class, have another week of scrimmages beginning Friday with a six-inning contest. Here are some of the notable standouts and statistics from the first week's scrimmages.
.500 – Sophomore Jacob Young's batting average. The Ponte Vedra, Fla., native logged nine hits in a team-high 18 at bats, in addition to reaching base in 11 of his 20 plate appearances. Young, who will carry an 18-game hitting streak into the 2021 season, scored five runs opening week.
Although it is on four fewer plate appearances and six fewer at bats, freshman Wyatt Langford also posted a .500 batting average, with six hits, a pair of runs batted in, and four runs scored.
0 – Runs allowed by sophomore Christian Scott in four innings pitched. Scott struck out five and allowed just three baserunners (two hits, one walk). The Parkland, Fla., product led all UF relievers with 15 innings pitched last season, which he finished with a 1.20 earned run average.
2 – Home runs by freshman catcher Nathan Hickey. Picking up right where he left off at the end of the shortened 2020 season, Hickey blasted a pair of homers in a nine-inning scrimmage this past Wednesday, one of which was an opposite-field shot for the only run scored against junior starter Jack Leftwich. Hickey, who homered in four consecutive games prior to what ended up being Florida's final outing of the 2020 campaign, also scored a team-high six runs, smacked two doubles, and matched sophomore infielder Kris Armstrong and junior utility player Jordan Butler with a team-high four RBI.
Hickey with the old "Throw 'Em Out, Hit One Out" routine 😮
— Florida Gators Baseball (@GatorsBB) October 29, 2020
🙅♂️💣💣#GoGators pic.twitter.com/xatqbhrZl2
4 – Other Gators hitting at least .300 thus far. The four not previously singled out who hit above the threshold opening week were Butler (.385), junior outfielder Brock Edge (.365), and freshmen Mac Guscette (.313) and Sterlin Thompson (.308).
Butler homered in the first scrimmage, while Thompson drew three walks and registered a .471 on-base percentage in 18 plate appearances, and Edge tallied a team-high four stolen bases and six hits, which were second only to Young's team-leading nine hits.
10 – Combined strikeouts-to-walks ratio by Leftwich, fellow junior starter Tommy Mace, sophomore Nick Pogue, and Scott. The quartet racked up 20 strikeouts against just two walks in 16.1 innings pitched.
Pogue's six strikeouts matched left-handed freshman Ryan Cabarcas for the team lead, and he allowed just one run on three hits. Leftwich tallied four strikeouts in four innings, with Hickey's home run being his only blemish. Mace amassed five strikeouts across four innings.
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