Diamonds Amidst The Rough: Florida's Diamond Sports Should Have Florida Gators Fans Excited
Between the lasting taste of Florida Gator football’s humiliating loss to the Oklahoma Sooners in late December, plus another year of watching Florida basketball struggle to get over the hump of mediocrity, Florida Gators’ fans have been left reeling for the taste of success.
Fortunately, the springtime is slated to bear success-tasting fruits. And they come in the shape of diamonds.
The Gators’ two diamond sports, baseball and softball, are widely expected to be two of the best programs in the country.
Florida baseball finished its shortened 2020 campaign as the top-ranked team in the nation, boasting a 16-1 record. To date, Kevin O’Sullivan and the Gators have maintained their No. 1 status. Heading into the preseason, four of the six major polls have been released – and each have the Gators crowned as the best team in America.
The Gators’ lone sucker punch in 2020 came off the knuckles of the rivaling Florida State Seminoles on March 10. Florida State’s 2-0 upset over the Gators would be the last game ever played in Alfred A. McKethan Stadium.
But in 2021, the Gators are onto bigger and better things. And that isn’t only because the Florida ball club waltzes into the 2021 campaign as the best team in America, but it will also boast one of the best college baseball venues in the nation.
On February 19-21, the No. 1-ranked Gators will host the No. 11-ranked Miami Hurricanes for the first game ever played at the Florida Ballpark at Alfred A. McKethan Field.
The $65 million project was slated to be opened towards the conclusion of the 2020 season, but like many other things, Covid-19 threw a wrench into those plans.
But come February 19, the state of the art facility will finally get its grand opening. And if all goes as planned, the Florida Ballpark could house one of the best baseball teams in the program’s history.
Following the NCAA’s decision to grant student-athletes an additional year of eligibility, the Gators returned eight of their nine position starters and three weekend pitchers. Six of Florida’s returners are included in Baseball America’s 2021 Major League Baseball Draft Top 200 Prospects.
Perhaps the face of the program heading into 2021 is Jud Fabian, an Ocala native who Baseball America ranks as the No. 11 prospect in the 2021 MLB draft.
The incoming junior started all 17 games at centerfield in 2020 and served as the Gators’ leadoff hitter. Fabian’s 20 hits (.294) were the second most on the team, while his 19 runs led the way for Florida.
Behind Fabian is a trio of right-handed pitchers for Florida. Tommy Mace ranked as the No. 38 prospect, while Ben Specht and Jack Leftwich ranked at 92 and 139, respectively.
In the long offseason, O’Sullivan and staff bagged the No. 6-ranked recruiting class, according to D1Baseball.
"The Gators already had the most talented roster in the country returning to campus this fall," D1Baseball’s Aaron Fitt says. "And the rich got richer with this class, which gives the Gators another bumper crop of impact position players in the freshman class as well as a premier freshman lefty and a marquee arm from the JUCO ranks."
Just across the street from the new ballpark, Florida’s softball program will look to continue its seventh year of dominance.
Since 2014, the Gators’ softball team has opened its season in the top-10 in both major preseason polls. This year has proved no different.
Though it will have been 340 days since their last game in March of 2020 when the Gators finally get back to the dirt, Tim Walton’s group was named the seventh-best team in the USA Today Preseason Coaches Poll and the sixth-best team by ESPN.
In 2020, before the abrupt ending to their season, the Gators had amassed a record of 23-4. Florida was also off to a 3-0 start in SEC play.
To get back into the groove in 2021, the Gators will visit Tampa to take on USF for a three-games series on February 13 and 14.
And like its baseball counterpart, Florida’s softball program returns a majority of its roster heading into the 2021 season.
Six members of Florida’s 2020 lineup will return in 2021. And if last season was any indication, this likely spells trouble for the opponents. The six Gators who will return in 2021 combined for a batting average of .378 in 2020.
Florida’s offensive efforts are likely to be led by three-time NFCA All-American Kendyl Lindaman, who batted .410 last year. Charla Echols (.417), Cheyenne Lindsey (.381), Hannah Adams (.375), Jaimie Hoover (.325) and Julia Cottrill (.323) all rejoin Lindaman in the powerful lineup.
Lindaman and Echols also recently appeared on the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year watchlist.
In the circle, the Gators return four hurlers, with Rylee Trlicek (1.64 ERA) and Natalie Lugo (1.99 ERA) leading the pitching efforts.
In recent months, Florida Gators fans have had to navigate through a bit of a rough patch.
A show cause order against Dan Mullen, the horrifying incident with Keyontae Johnson and a number of coaching changes within the football program hasn’t helped ease the nerves of Gators fans.
But trust me when I say it: The spring will bring forth diamonds in the rough.
Comments