GAINESVILLE, Fla. — You want a memory. You want a time when Cliff Waldrep remembers his son Hurston going from a kid who plays baseball to perhaps something more. You want something tangible that hints at where Hurston is today.
Cliff doesn't need much time to pull one from the files in his head.
He goes back to the night of April 19, 2018. It was a Friday night.
Hurston Waldrep's Thomasville (Ga.) High Bulldogs hosted the Yellow Jackets of Thomas County Central High, their cross-town rivals. Cliff recalls the standing-room-only crowd. The back-and-forth chants between fans. A tension-filled game.
Thomasville won 5-3. Hurston, a prep sophomore, entered the game in the sixth inning with a runner on second and three-run lead. He hit the first two batters he faced to load the bases, followed by a strikeout. He then walked in a run, and with the tying runs in scoring position,
Hurston Waldrep composed himself and struck out the next two batters to end the threat. He breezed through the final inning, striking out the side to seal the win.
In the next day's
Thomasville Times-Enterprise, the teenager tried to explain how he escaped the jam in the pressure-filled moment.
"I looked at the fans. I looked at who I was playing for,"
Hurston Waldrep said. "I forgot who we were playing. I just calmed myself down, focused mentally and emotionally, and just played baseball."
Hurston Waldrep is in his first season at UF following two seasons playing for Southern Mississippi. (Photo: Maddie Washburn/UAA Communications)
When his dad read the quote in the newspaper the next day, he knew his youngest son was growing up and had the right mindset if he planned to pursue the game at a higher level someday.
"He made a turn as to realize not to let the adrenaline overwhelm him in that game," Cliff Waldrep said. "There was
a lot of adrenaline."
It's been almost five years since that night under the lights at the Bryant-Garner Athletic Complex, and
Hurston Waldrep has managed his adrenaline and opposing batters just fine. Waldrep will be pumped on Saturday when the junior right-hander makes his first career start for the Gators. Waldrep is one of the top-ranked pitchers in the country and transferred to Florida after playing two seasons at Southern Mississippi.
He altered his career trajectory while at Southern Miss, going 7-2 with a 3.22 ERA and 156 strikeouts in 106 1/3 innings in two seasons. Waldrep blossomed a season ago, fanning 140 batters in 90 innings (14 Ks per nine innings) to help Southern Miss to an NCAA Super Regional berth.
"Out of high school, I had one offer, and that was Southern Miss,'' Waldrep said. "That was really my only big offer. It was really intriguing, and I played two years there and enjoyed every minute of it."
Still, Waldrep wanted more and entered the transfer portal following the season. He grew up watching Georgia football because of Cliff's fandom, but when it came to baseball, he always had an eye on the Gators.
He remembers watching Alex Faedo, Brady Singer and Jackson Kowar pitch the Gators to their first College World Series title in 2017, the summer after Hurston's freshman high school season. He envisioned that being him one day and began to work seriously on figuring out how to make it happen.
He started in the weight room, his home away from the mound.
"I was always pretty serious about the weight room. I saw the results from it pretty quickly, especially in high school, so from there, I put a ton of stock into how I manage my time in the weight room and the things I do and how it translates onto the field,'' he said. "That was my sanctuary. That's where I wanted to be. Anything I could do to improve my game, I was willing to do it."
UF head coach
Kevin O'Sullivan immediately made Waldrep a priority when he entered the portal, aware that the 6-foot-2 right-hander had come a long way since he was dusting off hitters back in Thomasville.
"We knew about him in high school, but quite honestly, he was still early in his development," O'Sullivan said. "He would probably tell you himself his ability to command the baseball is a lot different now than it was in high school.
"As soon as he went in the portal — I was in Hoover, Alabama, at a 16-[under] tournament — and as soon as he went in, I drove over and got on a plane the next morning at 5:45, flew to Charlotte, got in a car and drove to Cary [N.C.] where he was with the USA team. He was obviously recruited by everybody, but adding somebody like that, with [Brandon] Sproat gives us as good a 1-2 punch as we've had."
Waldrep was named a first-team Preseason All-American by
Collegiate Baseball and is considered one of the top pitching prospects in the 2023 MLB amateur draft. He turns 21 next month, and with
Brandon Sproat, who pitched 5 2/3 hitless innings in Friday night's season opener, and lefty
Jac Caglianone, scheduled to start Sunday, gives Florida one of the most talented weekend rotations in college baseball.
Waldrep has embraced the tunnel-vision focus and demanding pace established by O'Sullivan, a former catcher who is in his 16th season in charge of the program.
"It's a different atmosphere. The transition couldn't have gone any smoother,'' Waldrep said. "As a player, the way they teach pitching here, it's different in how they teach you to attack hitters, to attack the zone. Mostly, it's just confidence in yourself because that's the biggest thing, your stuff may not be the best that day, but if you have confidence in whatever you're throwing, you can conquer the world."
Waldrep's new teammates sensed he was wired differently soon after he joined the team.
"Hurston specifically is one of the hardest workers I've been around, so it's pretty easy to transition with a guy like that,'' catcher
BT Riopelle said. "He's electric … but he's really kind of refined his craft and what he looks to accomplish when he gets out on the mound. He's super quirky in the way he does things. But it's hard not to think it works when whenever you see his stuff and his stats."
Waldrep started his college career in the bullpen but emerged as the staff ace a season ago. He has hit 100 mph on the radar gun and mixes in a slider, splitter and curveball, which he considers his best pitch.
But, as always, his best work is between starts.
"I like my routine. I like being able to plan everything out, keep everything in order and do it all in an orderly fashion,'' he said. "I credit a lot of my velo to the weight room and mechanics. You don't just get on the mound and throw. It starts when you wake up in the morning: take care of yourself, how you eat, mobility, being able to fine-tune your mechanics each and every way."
Cliff Waldrep has some adrenaline flowing this weekend, too. He is looking forward to seeing Hurston make his UF debut. They don't talk much about baseball, but then again, they don't have to.
Father knows son well, and the son is busy sticking to his routine and seeing where it takes him.
"He's that way about everything,'' Cliff said. "This is definitely a fitting program for him, the whole mindset. It's definitely right up his alley. He's made a more aggressive turn, even trying to do better than what he's done before."
