The sweat hadn't even dried off of Kevin O'Sullivan's Nike pullover following Florida's regular season finale against Georgia before he turned his attention to the next challenge — No. 1 Arkansas.
"We’ll start on Arkansas tonight," O'Sullivan said of Florida's season finale. "We travel on Wednesday and play Thursday, Friday, Saturday. We’ve still got a lot to play for. We’re right in the middle of this thing. Obviously, it’ll be a great challenge to play Arkansas at their place. At the end of the day if we want to get to the final destination and have an opportunity to play for a National Championship we’re going to have to play Arkansas and teams like Arkansas. It’s a great opportunity for us."
A great opportunity for certain in what has been a turbulent, yet successful season for the Flordia Gators on the diamond.
Florida entered the 2021 season as the unanimous No. 1 team in the country. Following Florida's 16-1 start to the COVID shortened 2020 campaign the Gators returned all but two of their scholarship players and were given lofty expectations. Florida was quickly brought down to Earth with an opening series loss to Miami. The Gators have never regained their preseason ranking, falling as low as 15th in the country at one point this season.
The Gators' had an awakening at the beginning of April in Knoxville. Florida fought back on Friday night to tie the Volunteers in the seventh inning before falling 6-4. Saturday the Gators jumped out to a 3-0 lead but a five run Vol outburst in the fifth inning did Florida in. It was a Sunday victory, a come from behind win, that really woke the Gators up.
"The Tennessee game, it was a little chippy," Jud Fabian said. "I think that lit a fire under us. we've been playing with a little bit of an edge ever since that Sunday Tennessee game. We've been playing some really good baseball as of late and we don't plan on stopping soon."
Since the first two losses in Knoxville the Gators have won 15 of their last 20 games and Jud Fabian is one of the main reasons why. In his last 15 games against SEC opponents, Fabian is 19-52 (.365) with 17 runs scored, 9 home runs, 5 doubles, and 16 runs batted in. Fabian's 20 home runs are also tied for the most in the country (Mattheu Nelson - FSU, Wes Clarke - South Carolina). On the season Fabian also ranks fifth in the SEC in slugging percentage (.634), fifth in walks (37), tied for fifth in total bases (121), and tied for ninth in runs (48).
"It’s hard to pitch to him because he obviously hits good pitches that are strikes. But he also will go out of the zone and drive it," Arkansas manager Dave Van Horn said Wednesday. "He has tremendous bat speed. When the bat makes contact with the ball it jumps. When you see him physically, he’s not a real big guy, but he’s got some serious power."
The Gators will send Tommy Mace to the mound to start the series — which begins on Thursday night in Fayetteville. Mace has pitched better than his stat line would suggest since earning his starting job back after being sent to the bullpen earlier in the season. Florida's pitching staff has seen a lot of movement this season but one change has proven best for both the team and the player. That is the move of Jack Leftwich from Saturday starter to the bullpen. Since a poor outing in Knoxville, Leftwich has been dominant for the Gators out of the bullpen. He's become a guy that O'Sullivan is comfortable to bring into any situation and has picked up three saves on the year.
They’ve flip-flopped some guys. They’ve taken some of their starters and put them in the bullpen and have used them at the end or used them in the middle, because for some reason they weren’t getting off to a good start, or whatever," Van Horn said.
"There are different scenarios and they felt like they’d be stronger that way. And I think it’s really helped them the second half of the season. It’s worked out."
For the Gators, Leftwich brings the 2017 version of Michael Byrne to mind. Like Byrne, Leftwich was a starter that could give you three-plus innings in relief on any given night. They both have the right temperament to handle late-game situations as well.
For Florida the task this week is tall. Arkansas will, for the first time in 2021, open Baum-Walker Stadium up to 100-percent capacity, and the Razorback faithful will pack the place looking for Arkansas to become just the second team in SEC history to win all 10 conference series in a single season. Florida, one of just three teams to win nine SEC series in a season, hopes to keep Arkansas from achieving that goal.
