After sweeping No. 13 Ole Miss last weekend and getting a few days of extra rest thanks to a rained-out midweek matchup against Florida State, the Florida Gators baseball club is ready to continue its hot start in SEC play against the Auburn Tigers this week.
The Tigers are currently 17-7-1 and 2-4 against the conference, with both SEC wins coming against the Georgia Bulldogs. It won’t help that Auburn is down its ace, right-hander Joseph Gonzalez, especially because Florida is averaging just under 10 runs a game at Condron Family Ballpark.
Meanwhile, the Gators have had fairly good pitching on the weekends. Ole Miss is probably a better-hitting team than Auburn right now, so Brandon Sproat, Hurston Waldrep and Jac Caglianone should all bounce back on the mound this weekend.
Speaking of Florida’s Golden Spike candidate, Caglianone is still leading the nation in home runs and hit four big flies last weekend to celebrate Wyatt Langford’s return to the lineup. Expect both to have big weekends with Langford being the MVP of the series after a mild comeback.
It should be another fun weekend for Florida Gators fans, and there’s a chance that the brooms come out again.
Projected Starting Lineup
|
Pos. |
Player Name |
AVG |
OBP |
SLG |
AB |
R |
H |
HR |
RBI |
|
C |
[autotag]BT Riopelle[/autotag] |
.309 |
.387 |
.536 |
97 |
22 |
30 |
4 |
31 |
|
1B |
Jac Caglianone |
.400 |
.462 |
.971 |
105 |
32 |
42 |
17 |
38 |
|
2B |
[autotag]Cade Kurland[/autotag] |
.378 |
.470 |
.694 |
98 |
35 |
37 |
8 |
33 |
|
3B |
[autotag]Colby Halter[/autotag] |
.266 |
.373 |
.500 |
64 |
19 |
17 |
3 |
12 |
|
SS |
[autotag]Josh Rivera[/autotag] |
.402 |
.500 |
.804 |
97 |
37 |
39 |
11 |
39 |
|
LF |
Wyatt Langford |
.386 |
.521 |
.843 |
70 |
30 |
27 |
7 |
19 |
|
CF |
[autotag]Michael Robertson[/autotag] |
.289 |
.455 |
.342 |
76 |
21 |
22 |
0 |
9 |
|
RF |
[autotag]Ty Evans[/autotag] |
.243 |
.307 |
.417 |
103 |
20 |
25 |
3 |
29 |
|
DH |
[autotag]Tyler Shelnut[/autotag] |
.279 |
.380 |
.574 |
61 |
15 |
17 |
4 |
9 |
Probable Starters: Saturday (6:30 pm EDT)
|
Team |
Pitcher |
Record |
ERA |
|
FLORIDA |
RHP Brandon Sproat |
4-0 |
3.60 |
|
AUBURN |
RHP Will Cannon |
2-0 |
2.29 |
NOTES: Sproat kicked off SEC play with a brilliant complete game against Alabama, but he wasn’t nearly as sharp against a tough Ole Miss team to beat at the plate. Auburn is more similar to Alabama, so the expectation is a quality start from Sproat at the minimum. The Tigers aren’t the biggest swing-and-miss team, though, so put the over/under on strikeouts at 6.5 this week.
Will Cannon will get his first start of the season Friday against Florida after making nine appearances out of the bullpen for Auburn this season. His 2.29 ERA has earned him a shot as the Tigers look for a replacement at the top of the rotation for Gonzalez. He’s worked 4 2/3 innings and 3 innings over his last two starts, so don’t expect anything more than five from him on Friday.
Probable Starters: Saturday (6:30 pm EDT)
|
Team |
Pitcher |
Record |
ERA |
|
FLORIDA |
RHP Hurston Waldrep |
4-1 |
4.78 |
|
AUBURN |
RHP John Armstrong |
5-0 |
3.91 |
NOTES: Waldrep’s strikeouts numbers have come down a bit since starting SEC play, but that was expected to some degree. This might be the weekend he gets back to double-digit strikeouts, though, after an up-and-down performance against Ole Miss a weekend ago.
John Armstrong is another bullpen guy for Auburn that is getting a shot in the starting rotation. Florida will likely give him a proper welcome to life as an SEC starter and hand Armstrong his first loss of the season. He is particularly effective against lefties, though, so watch out for that.
Probable Starters: Sunday (1 p.m. EDT)
|
Team |
Pitcher |
Record |
ERA |
|
FLORIDA |
LHP Jac Caglianone |
3-0 |
3.41 |
|
AUBURN |
LHP Tommy Vail |
2-1 |
3.57 |
NOTES: Caglianone walked eight guys in 3 2/3 innings last weekend and has struggled over the past couple of weeks on the mound. There’s no guarantee here that Caglianone picks things back up, and this is clearly the game Auburn thinks it can win in the series.
That’s why the Tigers are throwing their typical Friday arm, Tommy Vail, on Sunday. This is a strategy many teams have used against the Gators this season, but it hasn’t always paid off.
Other Players to Watch
Grayson Belanger / Auburn Athletics
At the plate, Auburn is a pretty easy team to read. They have two power hitters, Bryson Ware and Justin Kirby. Ware is also second on the team in average at .404, but Kirby is an all-or-nothing bat with 30 strikeouts on the season. It wouldn’t be odd to see Kirby add five more to that total over this series, either.
Sophomore Ike Irish is another guy to look out for. He’s leading the team with a .416 batting average and has an OPS of 1.117. Other than that, Cole Foster is the only other Tiger batting over .305 with more than 25 at-bats.
It should be a good weekend for Gators pitching if they can navigate the tricky parts of the lineup.
Series History
|
OVERALL |
119-134-2 |
|
AT HOME |
66-50 |
|
AWAY |
45-81-1 |
|
NEUTRAL |
8-3-1 |
NOTES: Florida hasn’t lost this series since 2017 when they were swept on the road. Auburn might hold the edge in the all-time series, but Florida can cut the deficit down by three this week if all goes right.
Follow the Action
SATURDAY (6:30 p.m. EDT)
SATURDAY (6:30 p.m. EDT)
SUNDAY (1 p.m. EDT)
* Watch links go directly to game feed
Predictions
GAME 1: Florida, 10-4
GAME 2: Florida, 13-2
GAME 3: Florida, 7-6
SERIES: The Gators are as hot as any team in the country right now, and Auburn is going to struggle against them this weekend. Sunday seems like the only real chance for Florida’s lineup to run into a wall, and Caglianone’s latest struggles make me think that game will be close. Not the others, though.
Florida sweeps the series, 3-0.
Read more
[lawrence-auto-related count=5 category=1369]
Follow us @GatorsWire on Twitter and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida Gators news, notes and opinions.
Story originally appeared on Gators Wire