The Florida Gator baseball team is on its longest win streak of the season and appear to be trending upwards at a prime time.
The No. 21 Gators are coming off wins over Florida State, a sweep of Alabama and Florida A&M. This puts Florida at 21-10 heading into this weekend's SEC series at Ole Miss.
Florida is 4-5 in SEC play after its sweep of Alabama - after starting the season 1-5 in conference play. Since the sweep at Vanderbilt, UF has appeared to smooth out some kinks that led to the less than stellar start.
The biggest improvement that has been made over the past five games is pitching. The Gator pitching staff has allowed only two runs a game in the past five outings, thanks in large part to young arms.
Christian Scott pitched eight innings in wins over Florida State and Alabama, allowing no earned runs and only two base hits. He was named SEC-freshman-of-the-week for his performances.
Nolan Crisp has also been lock-down. The freshman has pitched 12 scoreless innings in his last three outings, all resulting in wins.
Pitching depth may be needed this coming weekend with the health of Jack Leftwich in question. The weekend starter has been dealing with a blister on his pitching hand and was limited to only one inning in his start Sunday against Alabama.
Kevin O’Sullivan said that he’s unsure if Leftwich will start this weekend and that it’ll come down to how the blister is once they get to Oxford.
If Leftwich can’t go, O’Sullivan said that they’ll see who the best arms available are and go from there.
It’ll be critical for the Gators the continue pitching at a high level this weekend at Ole Miss.
The Rebels average 7.9 runs per game, good for 14th most in the country. The Gators aren’t far behind though, ranking 31st in the nation averaging 7.4 runs a game.
Ole Miss has been a basket case this season. At times they’ve looked like one of the top teams in the SEC, they took two of three games from eighth ranked Arkansas in Fayetteville, and at other times have looked sub-par, they dropped a series at Missouri two weekends ago.
Individually, Ole Miss has had some stand-outs at the plate. Ryan Olenek is leading the Rebels in batting average, hitting .376, and has only struck out ten times in 117 at-bats.
The power in the Rebel lineup is there as well. Thomas Dillard has smacked nine home runs and driven in 33 RBI’s while amassing a .642 slugging percentage. Tyler Keenan leads the team in RBI’s with 44, which is also fourth most in the country.
Thanks to the offense, the Rebel pitching has been able to take advantage of being given run support. The Ole Miss pitching staff allows 4.66 runs a game, not terrific but considering the amount the Rebels score, it gets the job done.
The Gators will see Will Ethridge on Friday to open the series. Ethridge is far and away the Rebels best arm, coming in with a 1.72 ERA and 4-2 record. On Saturday, Florida will see Doug Nikhazy (3-2, 3.23 ERA).
The Gators will throw Tommy Mace on Friday, who is coming off a complete game performance in last Friday’s win over Alabama. Mace is 5-2 on the season with a 3.42 ERA.
The rest of the weekend rotation has yet to be decided.
First pitch Friday night is at 7:30pm.
