The No. 6 Florida Gators finally won both of their midweek games this week with victories over the Florida Atlantic Owls.
On Tuesday, UF outscored FAU, 18-11, in a game that was extended by a 41-minute rain delay. Josh Rivera led the night with three hits, including two home runs and nine RBIs, and Wyatt Langford also had a three-hit night. Ty Evans and Tyler Shelnut both hit home runs as well.
Although it wasn’t a great outing for freshman Yoel Tejeda Jr., Florida scored more than enough runs to take the game in convincing fashion. Ryan Slater, Nick Ficarrotta, Phillip Abner and Brandon Neely all got work in relief.
The pitching staff was much sharper on Wednesday. Starter Tyler Nesbitt and left-hander Phillip Abner combined for an eight-inning, two-hit shutout. Jac Caglianone was the star on offense, collecting four hits on the day, including a walk-off grand slam that put the 10-run rule into effect.
Wednesday was the dominant win Florida has been looking for all year and finally leaves the team heading into the weekend on the right foot.
Siena might be Florida’s most favorable series of the season, and the Gators look like they are finally firing on all cylinders.
Nesbitt and Abner came up big
AP Photo/Gary McCullough
Tyler Nesbitt had a strong year for Florida in 2022, but he only ended up starting two games over the season for the Gators. Nesbitt’s first start of 2023 might lead to more for the fourth-year right-hander. He gave up just two hits in the first inning and then buckled down to complete five shutout innings with six strikeouts.
The Owls proved that Florida Atlantic is no easy out on Tuesday, too. Nolan Schanuel was held to just a single after a three-homer night on Tuesday.
Southpaw Phillp Abner earned the save Wednesday with a three-inning, no-hit performance. It looks like he’s taken a big step forward from last year and is one of the top arms out of the bullpen early on for Florida.
If Nesbitt can be relied on to start Florida’s second midweek games, it solves a big piece of the puzzle for the Gators moving forward.
Told you Josh Rivera was legit
Cyndi Chambers/ Gainesville Sun
Last week, we highlighted Josh Rivera as one of the biggest pieces of Florida’s early success in 2023, and he followed it up with a 4 for 8 performance against FAU over two games. Most of that production came on Tuesday when he smacked a pair of home runs over the fence and collected nine RBIs.
Rivera was always going to be a key piece of the roster this year – most fourth-year players are in college – but he exploded early on. The Florida shortstop is batting .400, slugging .818 and walking twice as often as he’s striking out. Those kinds of numbers should translate to a selection in the first four rounds of the MLB draft.
Coming back for another year is shaping up to be one of the best decisions of the entire offseason for both Rivera and Florida.
Tough start for Yo
David Rosenberg/Gators Wire
We’ve seen three starts now from 6-foot-8-inch right-hander Yoel Tejada, but the jury is still out on what his role will be on the team. For a guy who throws in the mid-90s, Tejeda has been very hittable this season by teams such as Jacksonville, Florida Atlantic and USF. Still, it’s been the command issues that have done him in.
Now, the two homers from Schanuel might be excusable. He’s a top-100 prospect in the upcoming draft with serious power. In fact, it was probably a good experience for Tejeda to see a talented bat before conference play starts.
Tejeda is still looking for his first win in a Gators uniform, but his ERA has ballooned to 8.38 and some more work out of the bullpen might be in order as Kevin O’Sullivan continues to figure out his midweek rotation.
Wyatt Langford is only just getting started
Cyndi Chambers/ Gainesville Sun
Wyatt Langford is settling in at the plate and looking more and more dangerous by the series. His .455 average leads the team as does his 1.561 on-base plus slugging percentage. Langford went 4 of 7 and added five more runs to his season total against FAU.
At six home runs, Langford sits third overall on the team behind Caglianone (11) and Rivera (7). His RBI numbers might not be massive since he’s hitting in the No. 2 spot in the lineup, but Langford is still going to be a threat whenever he has runners on base in scoring position.
Langford is now pacing the team in runs, hits, doubles, triples and walks. He’s looking every bit of the Preseason All-America he is and should be a serious threat to take home the Golden Spikes Award at the end of the season.
Florida’s best base runner is a catcher
Cyndi Chambers/ Gainesville Sun
Florida is more of a power-hitting team than it is a base-stealing team, but that doesn’t mean the Gators are incapable of swiping a bag or two in any given game. Center fielder [autotag]Michael Robertson[/autotag] is one of three Gators to have attempted four stolen bases this season, but he’s not the most successful bag-swiper on the team.
That title belongs to none other than catcher [autotag]BT Riopelle[/autotag], who has successfully completed all four of his stolen base attempts in 2023. Kevin O’Sullivan is giving Riopelle the green light to run early and often, which isn’t the case for most college catchers. The crazy thing is that the gamble is paying off.
Riopelle likes to run. He was 6 for 7 on steals last year and often goes for the extra base after hitting a ball into the gap. Sully is clearly letting Riopelle expand his game after last season’s results, and he’s right to do so as long as he outpaces the 70-grade speed guy (Robertson) in the lineup.
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Story originally appeared on Gators Wire