GATOR BATS STAY HOT!

Heyman is hitting .322 and has 27 RBI against SEC pitching. His overall stats are .303/13/43.

Sitting Down On The Job? Nope. Just an unintended slipup by Hayden Yost, but not many by this hot hitting team (UAA Photo)

By EDDIE GILLEY

GatorBaitMedia.com

The Gators have won 10 of their last 12 SEC games. Pitching has been solid, but the real stars have been the hitters. The Gator bats have come alive this year. One of the biggest questions to be answered was “Who will replace Jac Caglianone?”

The answer is no one! However, The Gator offense has been the catalyst for the second half surge that has the Gators not only talking about the post season, but now in the conversation to host a regional.

Bobby Boser in the leadoff spot is batting .332 with 14 HR and 51 RBI. In conference play, he’s hitting .337 with only 2 HR and 17 RBI but has also scored 21 times.

Brendan Lawson is hitting .333 for the season with 9 HR and a team-leading 54 RBI. 20 of those RBI have come in conference games.

Using this past Friday’s lineup as a guide, Luke Heyman hit third. The Gator catcher has 10 home runs in conference play to lead the team. He also is hitting .322 and has 27 RBI against SEC pitching. His overall stats are .303/13/43. His hitting in conference games is the biggest reason the Gators have been able to crawl back in the national picture after a sluggish start for Heyman.

Blake Cyr was the cleanup hitter Friday. His conference hitting stats are not as good as some others. His average dips to .207 from the overall .264. However almost half of his HRs and RBI are in conference games.

Brody Donay has hit 13 HRs on the year, that ties him for second on the team with Heyman, trailing Boser by 1 for the team lead. He is hitting 50 points lower in conference play with only 4 HRs and 10 RBI. That compares to 13 and 43 overall.

Clearly SEC pitching is better than the non-conference foes. Landon Stripling moved to first base after the injury to Colby Shelton forced Coach O’Sullivan to move Boser to SS and Lawon to 3B. That move means the Gator offense trades a .360 hitter in SEC play with a .182 hitter. Stripling went 2-4 in two games this weekend where he saw action.

Ty Evans, Hayden Yost, Ashton Wilson and Justin Nadeau all are hitting under .265 in league play. But the quartet have 9 of the 35 Gator HRs against SEC foes. They also have 40 of the 146 RBI in those same games, proving that in today’s game, average isn’t everything.

The Gators faced a gauntlet early in the SEC schedule and their offensive numbers reflected that and in wins and losses. The season is long in baseball. That’s the reason stats are kept as averages. There is still more work to be done. Hopefully, all of these numbers will continue to rise in the remaining weeks of the regular season and post-season.

As the saying goes, “It’s hard to lose if you outscore the opponent in every inning!”