Shortstop Josh Rivera and the Gators are back in Hoover, Ala., for the SEC Baseball Tournament. (Photo: Craig Haas/UAA Communications)
Carter's Corner: Five Things to Watch as Gators Open Postseason in SEC Tournament
Wednesday, May 24, 2023 | Baseball, Scott Carter
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By: Scott Carter, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The social-media phenomenon has spawned a cottage industry online. If you want to check it out for yourself, go to Google and search "how to go viral."
Once there, you have more links than items on a Cheesecake Factory menu. Do you want to go viral on TikTok? Click the link. What about YouTube? Click the link. Instagram? That's right, click the link.
The Gators baseball team found another way to go viral on Saturday. Florida won its final regular-season game at Kentucky to keep hope alive of a share of the Southeastern Conference title. Next, the Gators gathered outside Kentucky's stadium to watch the end of the Arkansas-Vanderbilt game. An Arkansas loss would give the Gators a share of the conference title. The Commodores delivered, prompting the Gators to erupt virally.
The celebration, caught on video, featured a high-stepping dancer named Kevin O'Sullivan, who, in his 16th season as head coach, showed he still has some moves left in his back pocket.
— Kevin W. Farmer, MD (@kevinfarmermd) May 20, 2023
Afterward, the Gators (42-13, 20-10) flew from Lexington to Hoover, Ala., for this week's SEC Baseball Tournament, which opened on Tuesday. The No. 1-seed Gators face No. 9 Alabama (39-17) today at 5:30 p.m. ET at the Hoover Met.
The Crimson Tide advanced with a 4-0 victory over Kentucky on Tuesday. The Gators won two of three against Alabama during the regular season when the teams met in mid-March to open conference play at Condron Ballpark.
What the Gators do this week at the SEC Tournament has no bearing on the Road to Omaha — Florida is a projected top-eight national seed and will host a regional — but O'Sullivan wouldn't mind at least three games to keep his starting rotation on schedule.
Here is a glance at five things to watch as the Gators open postseason play: 1. WHAT WILL JAC DO?
Sophomore Jac Caglianone has emerged as one of college baseball's top attractions, a two-way star reminiscent of former Gators National Player of the Year Brad Wilkerson. Caglianone leads the country with a school-record 28 home runs and is ninth nationally with 76 RBI, which ties him with Wilkerson (1997) and Pat Osborn (2002) for fourth on the school's all-time single-season list. But Caglianone (6-2, 3.96 ERA) has done his best work of late on the mound. As the Gators battled for postseason position and an SEC regular-season crown, Caglianone won his final two starts in ace-like fashion. In Saturday's victory at Kentucky, Caglianone tossed seven shutout innings in a 5-2 win. That performance followed a sharp outing at home against Vanderbilt on May 14. Caglianone won both games, pitching 13 2/3 innings and allowing just five hits and one run. He walked four and struck out 17. If Caglianone can maintain that form on the mound, combined with fellow starters Brandon Sproat (7-3, 4.85) and Hurston Waldrep (7-3, 4,83), he equips the Gators with one of the most formidable rotations in the country. Control is vital for Caglianone. He has walked 44 in 61 1/3 innings, an average of 6.46 per nine innings. That number dipped to 2.63 over his last two starts, hence why the Gators are enthused by the way Caglianone is pitching entering the postseason.
2. LANGFORD IN GROOVE
The Gators got a scare in early March when junior outfielder Wyatt Langford missed two weeks because of a groin injury. Langford returned ahead of schedule and is heating up at the right time. Langford leads the Gators with a .399 average and has 16 homers and 41 RBI. However, the Trenton Thunder has roared especially loud down the stretch. Langford went 10-for-25 with four homers and 11 RBI in the final two series of the regular season, adding five doubles and nine runs. Langford's excellent season has been overshadowed in some ways by Caglianone's exploits, but don't sleep on Langford's importance to this club. He is hungry for a postseason run following back-to-back early exits from the NCAA Tournament. Gators fans should enjoy Langford while they can. He is projected as one of the top three picks in the upcoming MLB amateur draft and will likely be playing professionally by the end of the summer.
3. TOURNAMENT, STARTER TALK
The Gators have won two SEC Tournament championships under O'Sullivan, winning in 2011 and 2015. The Gators advanced to the College World Series each season. Florida advanced to the championship a season ago before losing to Tennessee. Overall, Florida is 75-68 in the tournament, winning the title in 1981, '82, '84, '88, '91, 2011 and 2015. Florida is 12-9 all-time against the Crimson Tide at the SEC Tournament, including an 11-6 victory last season. O'Sullivan has never significantly emphasized winning the SEC Tournament, more focused on setting up his pitching for the postseason. The Gators have been exceptionally fortunate in that regard, with Sproat, Waldrep and Caglianone each taking their scheduled turns. The three combined to start 42 of UF's 55 regular-season games. Six-foot-8 freshman right-hander Yoel Tejeda Jr. (2-0, 5.56) started the most games (six) outside the regular rotation. If the Gators make a run in Hoover, look for Tejeda and Tyler Nesbitt (1-0, 3.26, 3 regular-season starts) to get a turn on the mound.
Reliever Ryan Slater leads the Gators with eight wins. (Photo: Mallory Peak/UAA Communications)
4. BULLPEN BOYS
There was much angst early in the season among the hardcore seamheads about whether Florida's bullpen could answer the call consistently. The UF bullpen might not have a Mariano Rivera or Trevor Hoffman, but the group of Brandon Neely, Cade Fisher, Ryan Slater, Philip Abner and Nick Ficarrotta has improved with age. Neely, who started a season ago, has evolved as the closer. He has 10 saves and 52 strikeouts in 37 innings. Abner and Fisher are the lefties, and Slater is the guy who can pitch long or short based on need. Slater is 8-0 with a 3.74 ERA over 45 2/3 innings. Ficarrotta is a middleman who has pitched 31 1/3 innings over 18 appearances. And don't forget Blake Purnell, who was a regular out of the pen in 2022 but has pitched only 17 2/3 innings this season. We saw he could still rise to the occasion in his recent outing against Florida State. Bottom line, for the Gators to hang around Hoover or the postseason for long, the bullpen must be functioning at a high level. In this latest incarnation of the college game, offense is up, and teams with a shutdown reliever or two have a considerable advantage.
5. EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED
No game produces more unlikely heroes than baseball. I still remember being in the press box on a chilly night at U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago when White Sox outfielder Scott Podsednik hit a walk-off homer against Astros closer Brad Lidge to win Game 2 of the 2005 World Series. Podsednik had not homered all season. Gators fans were thrilled by an unexpected hero on Saturday when seldom-used reserve Dale Thomas, a transfer from Coastal Carolina, hit a two-run homer in the seventh inning to cushion Florida's lead at Kentucky. Before stepping to the plate, Thomas had no homers and two RBI in 31 at-bats. Sophomore Deric Fabian filled the unlikely-star role in the Vanderbilt series, replacing an injured Josh Rivera at shortstop and driving in four runs. We've seen Richie Schiekofer and Matt Prevesk rise to the occasion at different times. And we already mentioned Purnell's surprise performance against FSU. If the Gators win the SEC Tournament, somebody unexpected will do something unexpected.