Florida baseball dropped its rubber match against the LSU Tigers on Sunday, 11-2, and losing a series against a ranked conference rival should be enough to knock UF out of the top 10 in most college baseball rankings.
UF entered the weekend ranked No. 7 in the USA TODAY Sports baseball coaches poll and LSU came in at No. 21. Those rankings appeared accurate after a solid performance from the Gators on Friday with [autotag]Hunter Barco[/autotag] on the mound. As the series continued on and Florida worked deeper into its pitching staff, LSU began to take control and proved to be the better ball club.
Right-hander Ryan Slater got the start for the Gators after going five innings in relief in each of his last two appearances. He lasted just four innings this time around, allowing four earned runs on four hits and four hit batters. Prior to this game, Slater had plunked just one batter on the season. Things did get chippy as this series went on, but Slater’s shaky command is to blame for most of the hit batters today.
The bullpen didn’t fare much better. Phillip Abner and Brandon Neely hit four more batters and gave up six of the seven runs surrendered in relief. Nick Ficarrotta, Tyler Nesbitt and Blake Purnell all had strong outings, though. Tigers designated hitter Brayden Jobert led the way with two long balls that drove in five.
Despite the pitching issues on Sunday, Florida’s bats might have been worse. The Gators only had one hit through the first five innings of the game and only managed to score two runs in the sixth. LSU needed only the duo of Samuel Dutton and Grant Taylor on the mound.
Strikeouts are typically the glaring number for UF in a loss like this, but the Gators only K’d five times in the series finale. LSU pitching held the Gators to a sub-.200 batting average over the weekend, and this is a club that came into the weekend batting .309 as a team.
It’s not the first time the Gators struggle at the plate this year, but the feeling is that a veteran offense should be able to correct most of the issues that pop up over the course of a season. The long-term concern is the lack of depth on the mound, as Florida doesn’t seem to have found a reliable starter after Barco.
Brandon Sproat and [autotag]Timmy Manning[/autotag] have both had their ups and downs, which leads the team to turn to its best bullpen guys. Slater deserves another shot as does Nesbitt, but Florida needs to figure out the weekend rotation quickly as the season nears its halfway point.
LSU gave Florida a wake-up call this weekend. The Gators responded after dropping the first series of the season to Liberty, and now they’ll have to do it again. There’s no midweek tune-up game before traveling to No. 14 Georgia. UF will face No. 10 Florida State on Tuesday before kicking off the series with the Bulldogs on Thursday.
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