After winning a three-game series over then-No. 4 Arkansas this past weekend in Gainesville, the No. 2 Gators (21-5, 4-2 SEC) are preparing to face No. 7 Florida State on Tuesday night at 6 in Jacksonville.
In the second of three midweek games scheduled against the Seminoles (20-5, 5-4 ACC) this season, Florida will square off against right-hander Andrew Karp. The redshirt junior is 4-1 this season with a 3.72 ERA, good for second among FSU starters. His pitch placement has been impressive, having issued just five walks through 29 innings.
UF will counter Karp with a right-hander of its own in freshman Jack Leftwich. The Orlando native will make his third start of the season, his first since March 6 when he got rocked for six runs in 2.2 innings pitched against UCF.
After going 3-1 this past week, several of UF’s star players have emerged while others didn’t perform up to snuff. Here’s a look back on the past week’s best and worst Gators performances.
OVERACHIEVERS
Jonathan India, 3B — India has been unconscious from the plate lately. The junior third baseman went 7-for-12 last week and added one more to his team-leading nine home runs when he launched a first-inning grand slam against Arkansas on Saturday. He secured a hit in every game of the week, building his current hitting streak to 11. His next dinger will match his combined total from his first two seasons starting for the Gators. After batting .583 for the week, India’s average has shot up to .429 for the season, good for No. 1 in the SEC.
Deacon Liput, SS — Last week, I put Liput squarely in the underachievers section. Maybe he saw that, maybe he didn’t. Either way, Liput came back stronger than nostalgia for Pokemon with a 10-for-17 performance from the plate. After ending the South Carolina series on March 18 with a .161 average, Liput’s efforts elevated that figure to .313 through 12 games. He really found his stroke in Florida’s 17-2 trouncing of Arkansas when he went 4-of-5 with three RBIs on the afternoon. He also smashed his first homer of the season on Friday against the Razorbacks.
UNDERACHIEVERS
Blake Reese, 2B — After beginning the season on a tear, Reese has regressed to the mean. He has just one multi-hit game since March 4 and went 1-for-10 from the plate last week. Though he did get on base in all four games, most of his meaningful production came from a two-run homer in a 10-3 rout of Jacksonville on Wednesday. Despite the recent struggles, he continues to be one of the more patient hitters in the Gators’ lineup, drawing six walks during the week to bolster his team-leading 19 bases on balls.
JJ Schwarz, C — Schwarz’s case is very much one of taking the bad with the good. The senior captain did wind up smashing a crucial two-run shot in a 5-4 win on Sunday against Arkansas and added a solo homer against Jacksonville. However, that would be all the success Schwarz saw from the plate. He finished the week 2-of-17 with his home runs serving as those two hits. He was the only Florida starter to fail to reach base in the team’s 17-2 shellacking of the Razorbacks on Saturday. While his .290 average and .570 slugging percentage are still nothing to scoff at, his seven strikeouts elevated him to a tie with right fielder Wil Dalton for the team lead with 27.
Follow Morgan McMullen on Twitter @MorganMcMuffin and contact him at mmcmullen@alligator.org.
Florida catcher JJ Schwarz was 2-for-17 from the plate in the past week.
