Florida knew a rough stretch was coming, even before the season began.
The Gators are no strangers to midseason lulls — they had an 8-8 stretch that spanned from the end of March to the first half of April last season, too — they just had to brace for it and weather the storm again this season.
“We knew at the beginning of the year it was going to happen at some point,” senior right fielder Preston Tucker said. “The key was just to get out of it as soon as we could … I think we’re doing a great job of turning it around so far.”
After winning four of its last five games to seemingly end the rut, No. 5 Florida (29-8, 9-6 Southeastern Conference) will look to keep the momentum rolling this weekend in a series against Georgia (23-15, 7-8 SEC), starting tonight at 7.
Since a loss to Ole Miss on March 30 marked the beginning of Florida’s slump, the Gators have employed nine different lineups in 11 games in search of the right recipe to cure their midseason woes.
Turns out the solution to the problem rested with juniors Nolan Fontana and Brian Johnson, who have keyed UF’s recent turnaround by getting out of their own slumps at the plate.
After a 5-for-36 funk dropped Fontana from the leadoff spot in the Gators’ order following the series opener against Ole Miss, the shortstop has been on a tear.
He has hit .450 since and worked his way back to the top of the order.
“Instead of the ball looking like it does, it looks a little bigger, like a grapefruit,” Fontana said. “I feel like things are going well and we’re starting to click offensively altogether.”
That includes Johnson, who is 10 for 21 (.476) in the last five games after hitting 9 for 45 (.200) in his previous 13 appearances in the batting order.
“They’ve done an outstanding job, especially since the lineup hasn’t been swinging it too well as of late,” Tucker said.
“They’ve really stepped up from the bottom third of the lineup and working their way up. They’re doing a great job of producing runs, scoring guys when we need them to. That’s a big part of our success right now.”
If the Gators want that success to continue through this weekend, they will first have to solve Bulldogs southpaw Alex Wood (5-1, 2.61 ERA) in the series opener. Florida has often times struggled against left-handed pitchers, and Wood provides another stiff challenge.
In his last three starts, against ranked SEC opponents Kentucky, Arkansas and Ole Miss, Wood is 2-0, tossing 22.2 innings and striking out 23 while giving up an average of three runs per outing.
Florida’s weekend rotation, on the other hand, is still looking to return to form.
The Gators will start righty Jonathon Crawford tonight, with Johnson taking the mound Saturday and Hudson Randall returning to the mound Sunday for the first time since the Ole Miss series.
“Their starting pitching is really good,” Tucker said. “[Wood is] an outstanding prospect, great arm, left-handed pitcher. He’s going to be tough to beat. … Hopefully our starting pitching will do a great job of getting us deep into the game and not giving up a whole lot of runs.”
Contact Tom Green at tgreen@alligator.org.
