Gator Baseball: Thoughts of the Day

View from the Press Box after the big win. Photo By Kyle Curtis

June 26, 2023

A few thoughts to jump start your Monday morning:

Let’s start with the obvious. Well, maybe not so obvious because some of the talking heads kept insisting that Florida’s 24-4 rout of LSU might have been different if Ty Evans grand slam hadn’t gotten a teensy bit of help from Mother Nature.

The same wind that helped to blow what seemed to be a foul all into a fair ball grand slam homer in the third was blowing out all day for LSU. LSU’s hitters, those same ones that we were reminded constantly can hit the ball out of any park not named Yellowstone, managed one home run Sunday and that was with two out in the bottom of the ninth. It cut Florida’s lead by an extra point.

By contrast, the Gators (54-16) hit six home runs: Two by Evans, one by Wyatt Langford, two by Jac Caglianone and one by BT Riopelle. Those guys were swinging and missing a lot Saturday night when the Gators lost in 11 innings, 4-3. Amazing what happens when they make good contact, contact that was inevitable. Paybacks are hell when that happens.

A few big takeaways from the win that sends the Gators into tonight’s (7 p.m.) College World Series championship game with LSU brimming with confidence and riding a tsunami’s worth of momentum:

1. Because Purnell and Nick Ficarrotta were able to shut down LSU on three hits and one meaningless ninth inning run over the final 6-2/3 innings, the Gators were able to give plenty of rest to the key people in their bullpen, which is important since expected starter Jac Caglianone (7-3, 3.68 ERA) has been inconsistent pitching away from Gainesville. If Caglianone isn’t sharp, then Kevin O’Sullivan won’t hesitate to turn to Ryan Slater (10-1, 3.68 ERA, 3 saves), who hasn’t pitched since this past Wednesday against TCU. Both Cade Fisher (6-0, 3.19 ERA) and Brandon Neely (2-3, 3.58 ERA, 13 saves), who pitched multiple innings Saturday, have a day of rest and lefty Phil Abner (3-0, 3.16 ERA, 3 saves) has yet to pitch in Omaha.

Purnell induced an inning-ending double play ball off the bat of Tommy White with the bases loaded in the bottom of the third Sunday and Ficarrotta went five full innings. “I thought the double play that Blake Purnell got was a huge play in the game and, obviously, Nick came in and did a terrific job on the mound,” Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan said.

2. From an offensive standpoint, the Gators have been a team of spurts all year long. Once they get the bats going, they tend to stay hot for awhile. That bodes well for Monday night no matter who LSU throws. Prior to Sunday, the first five hitters in the Florida lineup (Cade Kurland, Wyatt Langford, Jac Caglianone, Josh Rivera and BT Riopelle) were a combined 15-83 (.180) with five doubles, four homers and 10 RBI. Sunday, those same five hitters were 14-27 with three doubles, four homers and 13 RBI. The wind might have helped one of those homers (the one Riopelle hit to dead center) but the other three were no doubters wind in or wind out. Evans, who is a candidate for MVP of the College World Series if the Gators win tonight, is 7-16 with two doubles, four homers and eight RBI for the five games so far. Coming into Omaha, Evans had four home runs and hadn’t hit one since April 11.

“Obviously, your best players have to perform,” O’Sullivan said. “Wyatt had an unbelievable day. I think he went 5-for-5. Jac, obviously, had a good day at the plate. Cade (Kurland) had a couple of hits. When those guys start going our offense, obviously, is a lot better and our best players performed really well today.”

3. Will LSU pitch Paul Skenes? In two starts he has thrown 243 pitches. He is a real freak who will be the first pitcher taken in the Major League Baseball Draft, but it’s asking a lot for three starts in 10 days, particularly since the second start was just three days ago. If he starts, it’s hard to imagine that he’ll have the same velocity and same movement on the ball and that should play into the Gators’ hands. Also, if Skenes starts, how long can he go? This will be LSU’s eighth game in 11 days and their seventh in the last eight, so how much pitching will the Tigers be able to count on?

4. Since losing game three at Texas A&M back on May 7, the Gators are 17-4 and have not suffered back-to-back losses. That tells you this team puts losses behind them and plays with incredible focus the next time out.

By the numbers: Caglianone hit his 32nd and 33rd homers of the season, giving him the individual NCAA championship in that category. With his five RBI, Caglianone has 90 on the season, breaking a tie with Preston Tucker for the single season category … Langford became one of three Gators to have back-to-back 20-homer seasons with his three-run job in the sixth. Langford owns the two longest homers in Charles Schwab Park history, a 456-foot homer against Virginia and Sunday’s 449-footer against LSU. With his 5-5 effort at the plate, Langford has a .498 on-base percentage for the season … Of the 29 home runs hit in this year’s College World Series, 13 have been launched by the Gators … Not only did the Gators set a College World Series record for runs scored in a single game, UF became the first team in this year’s series to score more than seven runs in a game.

Big weekend for Tim Walton and UF softball

The Florida softball program doesn’t need to be rebuilt. Tim Walton has built a program that was, is and will be among the best in the nation, but the 2023 season made it abundantly clear that some tweaking is necessary. Since the season ended, four have transferred out, seven have exhausted their eligibility and Walton has had to dismiss his pitching coach.

A recruiting class that some call one for the ages will go a long way toward a roster overhaul, but now the tweaking has begun. Over the weekend, Walton hired Chelsey Dobbins from North Carolina as his new pitching coach and he landed one of the top players in the transfer portal in All-American center fielder Korbe Otis from Louisville’s nationally prominent program.

Dobbins has spent the last eight seasons handling the pitching while serving as the associate head coach at UNC. A graduate of Oklahoma State, Dobbins worked as a grad assistant at Louisiana-Monroe, pitching coach at Marshall and Cal Poly prior to taking the job at UNC.

Otis, a major in molecular, cellular and developmental biology, has plans to become a surgeon when her softball playing days are over. She comes to UF with two years of eligibility remaining after two outstanding seasons in the outfield at Louisville. She hit .414 in 2023 with eight doubles, seven triples, 10 home runs and 43 RBI. She stole 23 bases in 24 attempts. She had an on-base streak of 35 consecutive games. She was All-ACC freshman in 2022 when she hit .289 with five homers, 10 doubles and 30 RBI.

2024 UF softball roster as of June 26, 2023

Returning: Baylee Goddard, OF (RSR); Avery Goelz 1B/OF (SR); Skylar Wallace SS (RSR); Emily Wilkie C (SR); Katie Kistler OF (SR); Kendra Falby OF (JR); Reagan Walsh 2B (JR); Kaila Pollard INF/OF (SO)

Incoming freshmen: Keagan Rothrock, P/1B; Ava Brown P/1B; Mia Williams INF; Alyssa Hovermale, INF; Ariel Kowalewski, C/1B; Cassidy McClellan, OF

Transfer: Korbe Otis, OF (Jr., from Louisville)

Trinity Thomas, Jasmine Moore at the Honda Sports Awards

It could be a very big night at the Honda Sports Awards in Los Angeles for a pair of Gators. Trinity Thomas, a repeat winner of the Honda Sports Award for gymnastics, and Jasmine Moore, a finalist for the Bowerman Trophy and winner of the Honda Sports Award for track and field, will be among the women representing 12 sports who will have a chance to win the Honda Cup as the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year. Lauren Haeger (2015) and Thomas (last year) were finalists for the Honda Cup. UF swimmer Tracy Caulkins (1983-84) won the award when it was named the Broderick Cup.

Thomas seems to be a shoo-in to make the final three and it wouldn’t be surprising if she is the winner after a year in which she tied the all-time NCAA record for 10s (28) with a stuck landing for a perfect score on the vault in the championship finals. Thomas won the SEC Gymnast of the Year three times and was named College Gym News Gymnast of the Year.

ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: When the Miami Heat lost to the Denver Nuggets for the NBA championship, Udonis Haslem’s 20-year career came to an end. An undrafted free agent out of Florida in 2002, UD spent a year in France where he averaged 16.1 points and 9.4 rebounds per game. More importantly, he trimmed 80 pounds off what had been a 300-pound body. Instead of a pudgy UD, he became what others in the NBA call a man’s man.

He made the NBA’s All-Rookie second team in 2003 and went on to win three championship rings (2006 2012, 2013). It was the 2006 NBA championship series with Dallas that Haslem showed his worth to the team. This is what Hall of Famer Dwayne Wade told Sports Illustrated about his teammate in that series:

“In the 2006 Finals, he was incredible. Especially with the kids, everybody wants to do the sexy stuff. They want to do the stuff that gets the highlights, gets people talking about you, gets your name written up. That‘s what I did. I did the sexy stuff. I scored 30. I dunked on people, I did all that. But Udonis did the stuff that’s not sexy. The stuff that no one wants to do. The extra effort. You guard the best player, but you may only get one or two shots. You may touch the ball one or two times, but I need you to run this pick-and-roll and make sure I get open. He did all the stuff no one signs up for, and he did it in such a fashion that we could feel the importance of it.

“Of course, we had Shaq [O’Neal], we had GP [Gary Payton], we had Toine [Antoine Walker], but when it came down to it, the Udonis Haslems of the world are the reason we won the championship. Guarding Dirk [Nowitzki], a guy that can get 20 to 30 shots off wherever he wants? That’s tough, mentally and physically. UD was up for the challenge, and he never complained.”

In this all about me time in sports, Udonis Haslem qualifies as the ultimate warrior. He spent 20 years with the Heat and never complained. He was the indispensable man for the team. How indispensable? When the Heat were in the process of signing Chris Bosh and LeBron James, who helped them win back-to-back championships (2011-12), Wade got the stars on the team to slough off money from their contracts to make sure Haslem didn’t sign with another team.

That’s respect, respect that was earned by being a warrior and the teammate who always had everybody’s back. And so a basketball playing career comes to an end. Udonis Haslem was the tough guy in the middle who got the Gators to the NCAA championship game in 2000. He spent 20 years as a guy who did his job and never complained.

There is something to be said about it. I think a lot of today’s entitled athletes could learn a lot about Udonis Haslem.