The Florida baseball team’s success in 2018 was consistent with recent expectations for the program.
Coach Kevin O’Sullivan’s squad rattled off 49 wins (the most in the conference) en route to an SEC title and a fourth-consecutive trip to the College World Series.
Paramount to that team’s postseason run were the arms that rounded out its weekend rotation and those behind them in the bullpen.
The core of that pitching staff is gone.
Brady Singer (12-3, 2.55 ERA, 114 strikeouts), Jackson Kowar (10-5, 3.04 ERA, 115 strikeouts) and Michael Byrne (3-1, 1.61 ERA, 64 strikeouts, 16 saves) all departed from UF to pursue their MLB dreams. In their wake, they left behind a depleted pitching staff devoid of a true ace and apt to be exposed by elite SEC offenses.
The dominant trio of Singer, Kowar and Byrne was replaced by sophomores Jack Leftwich, Tommy Mace and junior Tyler Dyson.
Dyson (3-1, 5.34 ERA, 21 strikeouts in 2019) earned a spot in the weekend rotation last year and began this season as the Friday night starter. He struggled in that role early on (two no-decisions against Winthrop and Miami) and was eventually relegated to his former role of Sunday starter ahead of the start of SEC play.
Leftwich (4-2, 4.65 ERA, 30 strikeouts) and Mace (4-2, 3.99 ERA, 34 strikeouts) were promoted to full-time weekend starters this season.
The 2018 team was second in the SEC in ERA (3.46), first in opposing batting average (.234) and fourth in strikeouts (607).
A year later, those standings in the conference are inverted.
The 2019 team is 13th (out of 14 teams) in ERA (4.54), 14th in opposing batting average (.257) and 14th in batters struck out (208).
UF has been outdueled on the mound in all but one of its SEC games. The Gators’ ERA in conference games jumps up to 8.47 and opposing batting average up to .329 — both dead last in the conference.
The starting trio was buoyed early on by an offense that took advantage of a relatively weak non-conference weekend schedule — besides Miami — to the point that none of them lost a start until SEC play began.
In their 20 non-conference games, the Gators average 8.24 runs per game. But in its six SEC games, UF averages just 3.66 runs per game, hardly enough to make up for subpar pitching outings.
In Dyson’s six starts, he averages just 4.78 innings per start. Leftwich is slightly better with 5.16 innings per start, and Mace leads the team with 6.38. Mace’s durability is likely one of the reasons he supplanted Dyson on the bump on Fridays.
When Leftwich, Mace or Dyson struggle, O’Sullivan is forced to call upon an inexperienced bullpen earlier in the game than UF’s opponents often do.
The four arms that have seen the most time out of the bullpen are sophomore Justin Alintoff, freshman Nolan Crisp, freshman Christian Scott and redshirt freshman Hunter Ruth.
Of the 12 Florida pitchers with the most innings pitched this season, only one is an upperclassman (Dyson), and six are true freshmen.
Florida’s offense has shown explosiveness (two 20+ run outputs against Florida State and Winthrop), but its inconsistency has been evident (five games scoring fewer than three runs). That streakiness puts ample pressure on the rotation to pump out quality starts just to stay afloat in the SEC, which is home to eight top-25 teams outside of Gainesville.
Follow Kyle Wood on Twitter @Kkylewood and contact him at kwood@alligator.org.
Florida Sunday starter Tyler Dyson is averaging 4.78 innings per start this season. He holds a 3-1 record through six starts, has a 5.34 ERA and has recorded 21 strikeouts in 2019.
