Diamond Dust: Mundane Midweeks Matter for Florida Gators
No one likes Monday through Thursday.
Nothing but mundane mediocrity comes in the middle of the week. It’s routine for most: wake up, roll out of bed, find a clean shirt, go to work... rinse and repeat.
And while we can all agree midweek days aren’t fun, I’m sure we can admit that they matter.
The same goes for midweek matchups on the diamond. They might not be the flashiest games. They won’t be played in front of large crowds and they might not be televised, but they matter.
I had a JUCO coach tell me not long ago after his team coughed up a non-conference game that he wasn’t going to stress it because it was a midweek, non-conference game. Between you and I, that mentality won’t get him very far.
In the game of baseball and softball (and any sport, for that matter), there’s two columns: a win column and a loss column. I know which one I would want to have more checkmarks in.
Florida baseball has five losses on the season – two came in midweek matchups. Florida softball has three losses on the season with one coming in midweek fashion.
Expecting either team to be perfect is unreasonable. But asking them to be sharper in midweek contests isn’t.
Kevin O’Sullivan’s baseball squad’s two worst batting performances came in its midweek losses to Florida Atlantic on March 3 and Florida State on March 16. The Gators, who have a season batting average of .302, hit .152 against FAU and .125 against FSU.
Those numbers will not win ball games. Those numbers haven’t won ball games.
In the Gators’ 2020 loss to FSU, the final game of last year’s campaign, O’Sullivan’s fellas finished with a whopping .103 batting average. And wouldn’t you know it, it happened on a Tuesday night in Gainesville.
In 2019, Florida baseball dropped a Tuesday night game to the University of South Florida after a .065 performance from the plate, followed by a Wednesday night loss to Florida Gulf Coast just weeks later with a .129 batting average.
It’s easy to look at the Gators’ five losses on the season and point fingers at the midweek rotation on the mound, which has left a lot to be desired.
However, when guys like Jud Fabian and Jordan Butler go for a combined 1-for-12 performance from the plate in Florida’s two midweek losses, it’s hard to pin it all on the pitching staff.
The Gators went 4-for-32 from the box during their March 16 beating from the Seminoles.
“We've been really good offensively up until tonight,” O’Sullivan said following the Gators first midweek loss to FAU. “I just don't think the focus was quite as sharp as it needs to be.
Probably need to tighten up a few things.”
Florida softball saw some of those same struggles on Wednesday night as they traveled to Orlando to take on the University of Central Florida in a top-25 matchup.
The No. 22-ranked Knights struck the scoreboard in the latter half of the first inning to take a quick one-run lead. UCF’s opening score was spurred by a lead-off walk dished by Natalie Lugo.
The right-handed senior saw two innings of action on Wednesday night and gave up four runs on four hits before being relieved by Katie Chronister.
And like baseball, while Florida’s pitching efforts did the Gators no favors, the inability to make
timely hits haunted them as UCF won the ball game in walk-off fashion. Florida finished Wednesday night’s game batting .240, the seventh-worst batting average of the season.
Florida’s batters in the nine, two and three-hole are among the best on the team and arguably in the nation.
Cheyenne Lindsey, who rounds out the lineup for the Gators, went 0-for-3 in the loss, depsite carrying a season average of .377. Likewise, Charla Echols, who leads the team in home runs (5) and RBIs (25), went just 1-for-3 from the plate, dropping her season average down to .408.
Fifth-year first baseman Kendyl Lindaman, who bats second in Tim Walton’s lineup, also laid a goose egg at the plate despite two at-bats. Her average now sits at .328 on the season.
But I get it. Midweek games are tough.
But they do matter.
Any game played on a day that ends with “--day” matters.
Comments