Last year’s group of freshmen pitchers went through it all.
Alex Panteliodis, Nick Maronde and Anthony DeSclafani immediately went from their high school graduations to a spot in a starting rotation in the Southeastern Conference.
The freshmen hurlers were part of a core of pitchers that led Florida to the NCAA Super Regionals — an experience the three will benefit from tremendously this season as sophomores.
Along the way, however, a price needed to be paid.
With the immediate playing time came moments of adversity and the old lesson of learning the hard way.
Panteliodis’ first road outing against Arkansas was one of those times.
After allowing only four combined earned runs in his first two starts against teams then-No. 8 Louisville and No. 10 Miami, his confidence was sky high.
But all of that changed quickly.
“It wasn’t good. It wasn’t good. It was brutal, very brutal.” Panteliodis said of his first road outing. “You can’t even really make out what they’re saying because you are just trying to block it out. I was mind-shocked.”
He left the game before he could even leave his mark on the mound.
UF coach Kevin O’Sullivan pulled Panteliodis after he allowed five runners to cross home plate in a little more than an inning.
After the game, he told Panteliodis that the debacle was expected.
“They had some ups and downs,” O’Sullivan said. “You can coach and you can teach, but that experience is something you can’t give it to them until they go through it.”
The youth of the pitching staff will be on full display over this weekend.
Redshirt sophomore Tommy Toledo will get the start in tonight's season opener against USF at 6:30 in McKethan Stadium.
While freshman Brian Johnson will go on Saturday, and DeSclafani will get the nod Sunday.
Maronde has taken on a different role this year. Instead of starting, he will be coming out of the bullpen and is a candidate for the closer's position vacated by Billy Bullock.
“We’re awfully young, so there’s going to be some growing pains along the way," O'Sullivan said. "But they’re talented and that’s why we recruited them."
Circumstances
O'Sullivan didn't have much of a choice but to start the freshmen in 2009.
Two crucial pitchers were missing from Florida’s rotation at the beginning of last season.
Then-senior Stephen Locke had yet to be reinstated because of pending DUI charges which were later dropped and Toledo, who is expected to be the ace of the rotation this season, sat out the year because of a shoulder surgery — both would have been weekend starters.
Instead, Panteliodis and Maronde took their spots in the first series of the season against a top-10 Louisville team.
From the start, they showed they belonged.
“I really don’t look at it like they were freshmen last year. I really don’t,” O’Sullivan said. “I know a lot of people from the outside-in look at it like that, but hey, they are good.”
Combined, the two didn’t show any nerves as they pitched more than 12 innings and allowed two earned runs while walking only one batter in the opening series of 2009.
But as the scouting reports grew more extensive on the first-year pitchers, so did their ERAs.
“It was great for me from a pitching standpoint,” Maronde said. “But I don’t think I really realized what it was until the season came around and how difficult it would be.”
Throughout the season, the ERAs and levels of success for the three fluctuated, but they still presented the team with some of its best outings.
Panteliodis and DeSclafani finished tied for the team-high in wins while Maronde tallied the most strikeouts last year for the Gators.
Each of the three pointed to then-senior Patrick Keating as the one who showed them the ropes.
Ironically, they surpassed the veteran in the pitching rotation due to the senior’s struggles midway though the season.
Keating began the year as the team's ace but ended it in the bullpen. He only logged seven starts before his understudies took over for him.
“They earned everything that they got,” O’Sullivan said. “There was nothing given to any pitcher last year.
"Patrick was an All-SEC pitcher the year before, and some of the young guys just outpitched him — it’s as simple as that. You try to make decisions with your brain, not with your heart.”
O’Sullivan’s Guys
After two top-5 recruiting classes, the team is starting to take the shape of O’Sullivan’s particular mold.
The trio of sophomore pitchers is a perfect indication of that.
After nine seasons as a pitching coach at Clemson, he knows how to evaluate top talent at the position.
Since O'Sullivan arrived in 2008, the team ERA has dropped each season.
He came to a team that struggled under its previous coach, Pat McMahon, and finished with an ERA of 5.27.
But in O’Sullivan’s first year, UF's team ERA fell to 4.39 and the downward trend continued last season as it fell to 4.27 — almost a whole run less than when he first arrived.
“When we first got here, our goal was to deepen the pitching staff,” O’Sullivan said. “That’s not done overnight.
"It takes more than one recruiting class, but we feel good about where we are at right now.”
The depth of the pitching staff is it's strength, as is evident from this weekend's rotation.
Johnson's emergence in his first year has given the Gators plenty of options for their rotation.
“We have five or six guys who probably could start anywhere in the country," Maronde said.
O'Sullivan's philosophy of playing the best players no matter how young they are is paying off.
The competition has increased among the pitchers, and 11 of the staff’s 17 are O’Sullivan’s recruits.
“Above all, he is a pitching specialist,” National Scouting Coordinator for Perfect Game USA Allan Simpson said. “He’s been around, and his reputation as a pitching coach is pretty established, and high school coaches send their players to him because they know he really knows his pitching.”
His resume demands respect, too.
“I really trust him and his judgment and what he is going to say to make me and the rest of the pitching staff better,” DeSclafani said.
But the most impressive thing is the development of the pitchers.
The five freshmen arms already look at sophomores Maronde, Panteliodis and DeSclafani as leaders and mentors.
“He knows how to scout and recruit pitchers, and he just knows how to develop them,” Simpson said. “He has a good track record for taking a rock and putting the finishing touches on it.”
Growth
From the start, the trio has been on a fast track.
This year they are taking on a new role on the team: leaders.
With such a new group of arms, the sophomores have been forced to the forefront once again — this time to guide the newcomers along.
“I definitely try to help the younger guys,” Maronde said. “One of coach O’Sullivan’s big things is leadership, so I try to pass down what they taught us last year.”
But they will be expected to do more than just become leaders this season.
If No. 7 Florida is going to meet expectations, the sophomores will have to make another jump in production from their freshman years.
O’Sullivan said he would like to see double-digit wins and ERAs of less than 4.00 this year.
“All of these guys pitched great last year, and now they have a year under their belts, Toledo said. "They are ready to go. I think this year is going to be special.”
If they don’t produce, they could get a dose of their own medicine.
“They have some battles this year,” O’Sullivan said. “A couple of these freshmen are pushing them.”
Panteliodis, Maronde and DeSclafani wouldn’t have it any other way.
