The Gators baseball team might have used up all of their runs for the week.
If you were paying attention (and judging by the attendance, you weren’t), Florida embarrassed Winthrop on Tuesday night. UF set season highs in runs and hits (24) as it cruised to a 22-5 victory at home.
Austin Maddox kick-started the party and flashed his 6.4 40-yard dash speed, when an error turned his first-inning single into an inside-the-park home run. Nolan Fontana, Brian Johnson, Mike Zunino and Josh Adams joined in with legit home runs. Even pitcher Tommy Toledo was seen taking practice cuts on deck in the eighth inning.
If you like the Gators, or are just passionate about watching poor kids get picked on, Tuesday night was a lot of fun. But the only thing we learned watching the game is that Winthrop sucks. If the Gators are going to reach Omaha again this year, they won’t be punching tickets with their bats.
I’m not talking about Florida being able to post 20-run performances. That simply doesn’t happen in baseball.
Duh. I get it.
To quote Fontana: “We put up 22 runs in eight innings. That helps win ball games, I guess.”
I’m talking about being an offensive-minded team, in any fashion. If Florida contends for a national title, which everyone thinks it will, it will have little to do with its performance at the plate.
In last weekend’s three-game sweep of LSU, UF scored a combined 13 runs.
Entering Tuesday’s game, the Gators ranked 26th nationally in batting average (.315) and only 75th in runs scored (123).
Translation: Florida does a fine job getting on base, but don’t expect the Gators to come through in high-pressure situations.
Except on Tuesday, when players kept saying the ball looked like a beach ball. That’s what happens when one of the most talented teams in the nation plays against a 9-10 squad from the Big South Conference. But Florida isn’t seeking a Big South Championship. The Gators want an SEC crown, and they want to make another College World Series appearance.
If they do make it back to Omaha — and trust me, they are good enough — they won’t be putting up any 20 spots. Heck, I would be surprised if they reached double-digits in today’s rematch with Winthrop.
Florida’s offense isn’t nearly as good as it looked Tuesday. And you know what? That’s OK. It doesn’t need to be. The Gators are averaging almost the same amount of runs as they were last season, and that team was one of the nation’s best.
And like last year, this team revolves around its pitching staff. Florida features 12 players who were ranked among the top-100 high school prospects. Eight of them were pitchers. The Gators rank seventh in the SEC in runs scored, but they led the conference with an ERA of 2.29 before Tuesday. The school record is 2.20, set back in 1968.
If you want to know what this team will look like come May and June, when it matters most, don’t go to McKethan Stadium tonight. Wait until this weekend, when Florida trots out its aces against South Carolina. You will be lucky if Florida scores 22 for the whole weekend, and the Gators will probably still win the series.
That is, of course, if they haven’t exhausted their bats.
