Florida’s fifth baseball team is back in action this weekend, after a five-day layoff. The Gators beat Texas A&M Aggies at home last week to open their Southeast Conference schedule and now hit the road to face South Carolina’s No. 25 Gamecocks looking to continue their winning ways.
The Gamecocks started the season on fire, winning their first 11 games before No. 19 Texas Longhorns defeated them in a series of three games that started a six-game skid. The USC broke that losing streak with a victory over No. 2 Vanderbilt Commodores – handing Vandy only his third loss this season – to avoid another sweep in the series. They also won a midweek match with The Citadel on Tuesday, giving them two consecutive wins over the weekend.
Historically, teams are almost dead – even with Florida holding the narrow margin with a record of 48-47 since the teams first played in 1919. South Carolina won seven of the first nine games and 11 of the first 15 before the Gators participated in a seven-game race from 1994 to 1998; The UF would also have another sequence of seven consecutive victories from 2014 to 2016. The USC, however, never won more than four consecutive wins in the series.
The Gators won the last meeting in 2019 and were the winners in six of the last nine hitches between the two schools. They seem to be the top team entering the series, but you never know when it comes to intra-conference competition.
Here is a look below at the starting pitchers lined up for this weekend’s series, along with the projected starting lineup. Scroll down further to get interesting snippets from the media guide.
Third-year outfielder Jud Fabian was elected Co-Player of the Week for the Southeast Conference, the league office announced on Monday. Fabian helped lead the Gators to fifth place in the ranking of a winning streak over Texas A&M. Fabian hit five hits in the week, as three of them were high, scoring two home runs and a double. The Ocala native added four RBIs, four races, hit .750 and showed the leather by taking a home run against Texas A&M to thwart a rally. In the series of three games against the Aggies, Fabian hit .385, hit 0.923 and recorded 12 bases in total. His two home runs, four races and four RBI came in the opening series of the conference.
The two teams have not met since a series of three games in Gainesville in 2019, where the Gators took 2 out of 3 out of Gamecocks, surpassing them by 18-15. Florida is 26-15 years old under coach Kevin O’Sullivan and has won all series in Columbia, except the first under his supervision in 2008. Tommy Mace won his last game against South Carolina, allowing two races in three hitting six innings. Jordan Butler has 0.833 hits with two home runs and five RBI against Gamecocks.
The Florida attack got off to a quick start in 2021, leading the Southeast Conference in several categories. The Gators mark the championship in hits (227), doubles (44) and total bases (364). UF ranks third in the SEC with an average of correct answers (0.302). Jacob Young leads the SEC with 10 doubles and 32 hits. Their 10 pairs also lead the NCAA, while their 32 hits are in seventh place in the overall ranking of the country. As a team, the Gators occupy the third place in all baseball, with its 227 strokes.
The Gators bullpen got off to a quick start in the Southeastern Conference game. In the sweep of the series over Texas A&M, the bullpen allowed only one run in six strokes out of seven relief entries. Christian Scott and Franco Aleman won defenses with several entries. The pen marked seven and did not take a walk.
Jack Leftwich managed three impressive consecutive matches. In their last three games, Leftwich is 3-0, having won just two races in nine strokes and eliminated 21 out of 21 entries. The right-hander went deeper into the game, playing at least six or more entries in that period.
Second year Jacob Young broke 21-year-old Tim Olson’s record on Sunday, March 7, when he scored the eighth inning to extend his streak to 30 games. Young recorded strikes in the two final games of the Lubbock Regional 2019, in all 16 games he made a plate appearance in 2020 and in the first 12 games of this season. The streak lasted more than 646 days, when his streak started on June 1, 2019. Young hit 0.415 (51-123) during the streak, with 11 doubles, 18 RBIs and 23 runs. Young established the fourth longest streak in SEC history, behind Ryan Flaherty (36 games in 2006-07) and Warner Jones (32 games in 2003-04), and Rex Buckner from Mississippi State (31 games in 1992-93 ). Before a 1 to 4 night against Florida A&M last season (March 4, 2020), Young was one of three Gators since the beginning of 2009 to record seven consecutive games of various successes.
Gators head coach Kevin O’Sullivan overtook Dave Fuller for the highest number of wins in the show’s history. O’Sullivan has 563 career wins and a winning percentage of 0.683 (which ranks third among active coaches with at least 10 seasons in the First Division). Fuller ended his illustrious career as a head coach in the Gators with 556 wins in 1948-75.