Florida Gators Baseball and Softball: Heaven and Hell on Hull
Hull Road has been busy in recent weeks.
The new Florida Ballpark and the recently face-lifted Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium sit on either side of Hull, facing each other in an apparent square off between orange and blue meccas of their kind.
Sprinkle in the occasional soccer game at the adjacent Donald R. Dizney stadium and it makes for a bustling day on the Southwest side of campus.
Twenty-one games have been hosted on Hull Road since the spring sports season really ramped up, beginning on Feb. 17. A team representing the Florida Gators has won 16 of those 21.
A 76 percent winning percentage is nothing to whine about in the spring season – it’s really quite impressive. However, we are talking about the University of Florida where the “Gator Standard”, something Dan Mullen coined, exists.
And not to pick on anyone, but one of those teams on Hull Road isn’t doing its chores and keeping house.
Even the golden child crumbles.
After being unanimously regarded as the best college baseball team in the country heading into the 2021 season, the Florida Gators are free falling.
After coughing up the opening series of the year to then-No. 21 Miami Hurricanes, there was a little shell shock, but nothing to storm the beach about.
The Gators dropped the center game after a 13-inning dog fight with the Hurricanes. Florida jumped to a five-run lead after just one inning and held it through six before letting the rope rip through their palms in the ninth inning as they gave up three runs to Miami.
Junior pitcher Franco Aleman inherited the mound in the eighth inning with a 8-3 lead. In 1.2 innings of action, Aleman gave up just one hit. However, that stat only shines if you don’t walk batters.
Aleman gifted six free bags to the Hurricanes, three of which pushed a run across the plate.
The Gators went on to give up two more runs in the 13th inning to lose the at-one-time five-run lead for the first time of the game. And the Gators would never see the lead again.
That can’t happen.
But Florida baseball’s Kevin O’Sullivan is one loyal guy.
“The game didn't come down to Franco at the end. Obviously, we would think most times we would win a ballgame with a 3-run lead. But there's a lot of things that factored into today's loss,” O’Sullivan said following the loss.
“We need to focus. We need to finish the inning. We talk about shutdown innings all the time. We scored five in the first, turned around and gave up one in the top of the second. It's a game of momentum, and it just doesn't fall on Jack and Franco. We had it teed up.”
Florida had it far from teed up during Sunday’s series-deciding rubber match on the next day.
The Gators found themselves buried under an eight-run deficit by the fourth inning. And though they had clawed back into the game by the eighth inning, it’s was a situation that even the top-ranked team in the country couldn’t overcome.
And most everyone’s eyes were back on the mound.
Hunter Barco, before ever stepping foot in Gainesville, was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers. During his 3.1 innings of action on the mound on Sunday, Barco gave up twice as many earned runs as he threw strikeouts. It wasn’t exactly the performance anyone saw coming from the promising rookie.
Dropping the opening series to Miami left O’Sullivan grasping at straws.
"I guess the best way to describe it was unexpected. Won Friday night even though it was a little closer than we wanted it to be with a six-run lead, and won a game with some momentum, new ballpark, everything,” O’Sullivan said. “Then uncharacteristically, some of the guys who've been there before just did not pitch as well as they should have. It literally happened within a 48-hour period and I don't have any answers. These guys have all pitched on the weekend, they've been pretty consistent in the fall, pretty consistent in the spring. I don't know."
The Gators lost to No. 21-ranked Florida Atlantic on Wednesday night in another extra inning showdown.
This time, the game was chalked up to not making timely contact with the ball when the Gators were in the box.
But O’Sullivan brought up a familiar issue during his post-game meeting with the media on Wednesday: focus.
“I'll look at this tomorrow, but I think we got some guys taking their bats out on defense. It's not focused,” O’Sullivan said. “It's not where it needs to be. We've been really good offensively up until tonight. I just don't think the focus was quite as sharp as it needs to be. Probably need to tighten up a few things.”
The Gators have already experienced a five-spot skid as they checked in at No. 6 in the country this week.
Wednesday’s loss won’t help. And Florida baseball doesn’t have an easy slate ahead.
After this weekend’s series against Florida A&M, the Gators will host Georgia State and Stetson on March 9 and 10. Both teams have the potential to further knock away at Florida’s confidence.
And if that happens, O’Sullivan might want to take the boys across the street to see what kind of advice Tim Walton and Florida’s softball program can offer.
The No. 5-ranked Gators of Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium have sprinted out to a 13-0 start to their season.
Granted, Florida softball has yet to see a ranked opponent. But in 2021, other top teams have learned that rankings don’t matter.
The No. 2-ranked UCLA Bruins lost to Oregon over the weekend, while Washington, which was the second-best team in the country in the preseason, has dropped games to unranked Nevada and San Diego State.
And the Gators have been in some upset-alert worth dogfights themselves.
“I think it’s good for us,” Florida’s fifth-year leader Kendyl Lindaman said earlier this season. “Just knowing and understanding that anyone can beat you on any given day. It’s the game of softball. It could be a close game. It could be a blowout. But anyone can beat you on any given day.”
That day hasn’t come for Tim Walton’s Gators yet, despite some close calls.
Senior second baseman and lead-off hitter Hannah Adams has recorded two walk-off hits so far this season. Adams most recently helped the Gators fend off McNeese State by lifting a home run over the centerfield wall in the eighth inning.
But like the baseball team, some of Florida softball’s pitching has come as a surprise – but a pleasant one.
Fifth-year lefty and Gainesville native, Katie Chronister and junior righty, Elizabeth Hightower have taken the circle by storm.
In previous seasons, Chronister and Hightower saw much of their action in relief.
“I just wanted to be a role player,” Chronister said of her decision to return for her fifth year in the Orange and Blue. “I had so much fun last year, regardless of what role that was… When we came back and he offered me my fifth year, I was just under the assumption I was going to stay in the same role. I still think I am in the same role, but being able to step up big was a big thing for me. I’m of course excited for myself. No real changes when talking about roles, I just want to come out there and have a role.”
And though Chronister might humbly believe otherwise, her role has grown in 2021.
This year, the formerly shadowed duo has started seven of the Gators 13 contests and lead the team in pitching efforts.
Through 22 innings of action, Chronister maintains an earned run average of 0, while Hightower, through 33.2 innings of action has an ERA of .83.
The two have also combined for 57 strikeouts. The rest of the pitching staff has mustered just 23 strikeouts.
The state of the diamond programs on Hull Road couldn’t be further apart thus far.
While Florida baseball continues to try to find its bearings despite the grand expectations that it walked into in 2021, the Gators’ softball program and its ability to finish games has become the highlight of Florida’s spring sports season.
But hopefully soon all of Hull Road will find consistent success.
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