The Florida Gators will play a two-game series against the University of South Florida on Tuesday and Wednesday, but both games will not be at the same venue.
Tuesday’s matchup is in Tampa at USF, and Wednesday’s is in Gainesville. It’s a fun way to make a series between two schools separated by no more than two hours on I-75 unique.
The Gators are coming off a dominant performance against Charleston Southern, but the Bulls should provide a bit more of a challenge. Still, USF was picked by D1Baseball.com to finish seventh in the American Athletic Conference, so it’s not like facing an East Carolina or UCF.
The Wednesday arms are still to be decided, but Florida will throw freshman left-hander [autotag]Cade Fisher[/autotag] on Tuesday. [autotag]Brandon Neely[/autotag], who was expected to compete for a spot in the starting rotation, is taking over the closer role, so young players like Fisher will have a chance early.
Offensively, the Gators are simply looking to keep hitting after outscoring the Buccaneers 37-5 and invoking the mercy rule twice over the weekend. Right fielder [autotag]Ty Evans[/autotag] led the team with a .500 batting average and 10 RBIs in the Charleston Southern series, and several other Gators collected multiple hits as well.
Third baseman [autotag]Colby Halter[/autotag] is still looking for his first hit. He should be in the lineup Tuesday with USF throwing a right-hander, so he’ll get a few chances to break the seal and get the season going. Wyatt Langford is always a name to look out for, but he might be a bit angry after going 0-for-4 on Sunday.
USF shouldn’t be taken too lightly. The Bulls beat No. 13 Maryland to start the season but lost the next two games of the series. There are a few dangerous bats on the team, so Florida needs to take its opponent seriously to enter the second weekend of the season undefeated.