Life without Tyler Thompson is proving to be more difficult for Florida than anyone could have imagined.
It’s not often you hear those words when speaking about the loss of a career .280 hitter who averages one strikeout every 3.2 at-bats. Still, that’s the case with Thompson, who tore his ACL rounding first base March 16 against Vanderbilt.
Despite the fact Thompson was on pace for a career season at the plate, Florida’s senior center fielder has never been much of a threat offensively. He has, however, been the most consistent defensive outfielder on the roster.
In 154 career games, Thompson sports a .995 fielding percentage, committing just one error in 183 attempts. Although he has never recorded an assist on a putout, he has been about as reliable as it comes.
Thompson’s absence has left a sizable void in the middle of the Gators’ defense — one that is proving very difficult for coach Kevin O’Sullivan to fill.
Initial plans were for senior Daniel Pigott, normally Florida’s everyday left fielder, to shift to center while freshman Justin Shafer took over in left.
O’Sullivan sounded confident in Shafer’s ability to step up in Thompson’s absence, but the freshman dropped a routine fly ball in the seventh inning last Tuesday against Samford. The drop allowed Samford batter Zeth Stone to reach second base and score on the following at-bat, cutting the Gators’ lead to 4-3.
That same game, Shafer didn’t charge the ball hard on a shallow base hit to left field, nor did he attempt to make a throw home as the Bulldogs took an early 1-0 lead in the first. In the sixth, Pigott misjudged a fly ball to center that went over his head for a triple.
While those errors did not cost Florida the game, they highlighted a series of misadventures in the outfield for the Gators’ new platoon of fielders.
“Just because someone makes one mistake, I’m not going to push the panic button,” O’Sullivan said after the game.
Florida’s skipper stuck with Shafer in left and Pigott in center heading into the South Carolina series, but that one mistake was quickly followed by another. Shafer dropped a routine fly ball in the third inning of the series opener and was subsequently benched. The move brought Pigott back to left field and put Cody Dent in center field for the first time in his career, a move O’Sullivan made to “shore up the defense.”
Dent started Friday’s game, but moved to third when Josh Tobias fractured his hand. That caused O’Sullivan to put Pigott back in center field and move Vickash Ramjit from the bench to left field — a position he only played occasionally during summer ball.
Ramjit was sound defensively in left field and made a spectacular catch in foul territory Saturday, reaching over the fence to make the grab among the fans in the stands. But the musical-chairs act that put Pigott back in center resulted in a fourth-inning error that sparked a South Carolina rally.
The Gators overcame the misplayed fly ball, again, and none of the outfield mistakes have proven costly. But three outfield errors in the team’s last four games without its everyday center fielder, who committed just 1 in 154 games, is cause for serious concern for the nation’s second-best fielding team (.982 fielding percentage).
There’s a tradition at The Mac, one that has been ongoing for four years now. Students in the left-field bleachers stand and flap their arms like wings when Thompson is at the plate — a nod to the 1994 Disney film “Angels in the Outfield.”
But with Thompson’s college career likely over, there is no more wing-flapping.
The angels are no longer in the outfield, but the Gators could use some now more than ever, because the loss of Thompson is proving to be bigger than anyone expected.
Contact Tom Green at tgreen@alligator.org.
