At the beginning of the season, hits were harder to come by for Austin Langworthy than on-campus parking is for UF students.
After Florida’s second weekend series of the season against Miami in late February, nothing was going right for the Gators sophomore. He posted an abysmal .133 batting average through the team’s first eight games.
However, he wasn’t displeased with his plate appearances.
“I feel like I had a lot of quality at-bats early and just didn’t have a lot of luck,” Langworthy said on Thursday.
But since that series, the UF outfielder has seen a nice turnaround — hitting .400 since March 10 — as he and the Gators head into a weekend series against Missouri (24-9, 6-6 SEC) beginning tonight at 6:30 at McKethan Stadium.
“I knew at some point the tides would turn, the hits would start falling,” Langworthy said. “And that’s what has happened.”
He’s right.
Since Florida’s series against the Hurricanes, Langworthy has trended upward in the box.
Very quietly, the Gators outfielder has increased his batting average from .192 on March 9 to .304 heading into this weekend. He’s also sporting a .418 on-base percentage and is one of only three Florida players with a plus-.300 average and more than 10 at-bats.
Langworthy is also boasting a seven-game hitting streak and has five hits over his last two games. But even with the accolades to this point of the season, he said there hasn’t been any change to how he approaches his trips to the box.
“This is a very hard game,” Langworthy said. “Sometimes it’s not gonna go your way and that’s how it was early for me.”
And for his coach, the recent success for Langworthy doesn’t come as a surprise.
“It was just a matter of time to get into a rhythm and see the ball a little bit better,” coach Kevin O’Sullivan said of Langworthy. “But I’m certainly not surprised.”
O’Sullivan also said Langworthy has been able to see lefties really well this season, which has helped his game over the middle stretch of the season.
Now, Langworthy will look to continue his hitting streak, as the Gators host the Tigers.
For him, the sophomore has always thought pretty highly of himself as a hitter.
“(That’s what) any good player does,” Langworthy said. “Having a mindset to know that you can hit and hit at a high level is really beneficial to doing well.”
Follow Justin Ahlum on Twitter @justinn_case1 and contact him at jahlum@alligator.org.
Left fielder Austin Langworthy's walk-off home run in UF's 3-2 win over Auburn in the bottom of the 11th inning sent Florida to the College World Series for the fourth-consecutive season.
