Kevin O’Sullivan knows what Gators fans are interested in.
Following Sunday’s win against FGCU, Florida’s fifth-year coach was asked about the in-state rivalry with Florida State.
“The fans probably make a bigger deal about it than we do,” O’Sullivan said.
He’s right; Gator Nation does make a big deal about playing the Seminoles – just look at Tuesday night’s beyond-capacity, sellout crowd of 6,005, the largest in McKethan Stadium history.
That’s why it’s a shame these two powerhouses don’t have an annual weekend series. Instead, they are doing the fans an injustice by playing three (or in the case of last season, four) times a year in midweek games at rotating ballparks.
With two of the nation’s premier baseball programs a mere 150 miles apart, fans should be treated to big-time matchups. It doesn’t get more big time than Florida’s weekend rotation against a menacing FSU offense that averages eight runs per game — among the best in the nation.
“They probably — I won’t say probably — they do have the best lineup that we’ve seen up to this point,” O’Sullivan said. “They can really hit.”
Yet this season, Florida’s weekend trio will not face FSU’s bats. Not even once.
Brian Johnson, ranked the No. 8 MLB Draft prospect by Baseball America, Hudson Randall, the No. 57 prospect, and Karsten Whitson, considered a top pick when he’s eligible for the draft again next year, won’t go toe to toe with the likes of James Ramsey and Jayce Boyd, the former considered the nation’s top senior and the latter leading the ‘Noles in hits this season.
Instead, fans get to watch slow-paced, 10-pitcher, bullpen chess matches like Tuesday’s 9-2 Florida win, which lasted just less than three hours.
No knock on the Gators’ bullpen, which has been superb this year and showed it again with 6.1 scoreless innings against the ‘Noles, but fans deserve a chance to see these teams go blow for blow in a three-game weekend series, when the big guns face the big bats — something these two squads haven’t done since 2003.
The thought of Florida’s weekend rotation against Florida State’s bats is a mouth-watering matchup. But the Seminoles’ weekend starters, which bolster a pitching staff that boasts a 3.26 ERA, against a Gators offense that began the week ranked fourth in the nation in slugging percentage is just as appetizing.
But fans won’t get treated to either of those main courses this season unless the teams’ paths cross in the postseason, which likely won’t happen until the College World Series in Omaha, Neb.
Fans wind up having to settle for midweek appetizers like Tuesday night’s.
That’s unfortunate, because as fun as watching these two teams during midweek games has been (even with the mind-numbingly slow pace that comes with these bullpen-dictated matchups), seeing two of the nation’s top programs go at each other at full strength for an entire weekend would be downright awesome for the fans and the teams.
And everyone knows it, including shortstop Nolan Fontana, who said he wished the teams could play a weekend series.
“The schedule is the schedule,” Fontana said. “Nothing we can do about it.”
Contact Tom Green at tgreen@alligator.org.
