Breaking down the Florida Gators’ offense
South Carolina and Florida are just a few short days away from kicking off the Gainesville Super Regional with a trip to the College World Series on the line.
With that massive Super looming, GamecockCentral and On3’s GatorsOnline are teaming up to provide insider content from the other side to get an in-depth look at the opponent.
GatorsOnline’s Nick de la Torre broke down the Florida offensive and what kind of challenges it can present moving forward.
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A Florida insider’s offensive breakdown
The Florida offense had been great all season. The Gators are a new school team with a slugging approach. Florida rarely tries to manufacture runs or play station-to-station. They mash.
Florida has 126 home runs this season, six shy of the program record. Jac Caglianone already broke the school record for home runs in a season (31) and he’s one RBI shy of tying the single-season RBI record. Florida has six players with at least 11 home runs and have 114 doubles.
Something to watch this weekend will be the weather. Condron Ballpark doesn’t typically play as big as it is (330’ down the lines, 380’ gaps, 400’ CF) but it did for the Regional.
With winds coming in from the north/northeast, Florida hit six or seven balls that would have been home runs on a normal day (the NCAA doesn’t allow us to publish analytics but sitting next to the yakkertech computer allowed us to see estimated distances on some long fly outs).
I wanted to highlight a few key guys.
Wyatt Langford is locked in. Caglianone might get the headlines and the two-way player deserves the spotlight he has received. Langford is hitting .323 (10-31) over the last eight games with two home runs, eight runs scored, four doubles and seven RBI. He’s moved from left field to center field as the Gators look to replace a slumping Michael Robertson.
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Catcher BT Riopelle’s last five hits are all home runs. He was just 3-13 in the SEC tournament, but those three hits were all home runs, including a walk off against Alabama and a grand slam. He went into the final game of the Gainesville Regional hitless and was 5 for his last 34 (.147) before blasting two home runs against Texas Tech.
Riopelle has been a workhorse behind the plate. He caught 27 innings in roughly 27 hours and has been behind the dish for every game the Gators have played in the NCAA Tournament. That takes a toll but he’ll stay in the lineup because he has pop and he’s invaluable to the pitching staff. He’s just the third catcher that has called pitches in the 16 years that Kevin O’Sullivan has been manager (Mike Zunino – 3rd overall pick & Mike Rivera – on the 2017 National Championship team).
Tyler Shelnut has been a lifelong infielder but was asked to move to the outfield to replace a slumping Ty Evans. It’s not always pretty with Shelnut in the outfield but he’s becoming a serviceable defensive outfielder. He’s not going to make exceptional plays but he’s not making errors and making the routine catch.
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He was inserted into the lineup for his bat but it had gone cold of late. That changed in the Gainesville Regional. Shelnut went 5-15 (.333) and had a .500 on-base percentage. He’s not putting up power numbers right now but he has a lot of pop and was one of the aforementioned guys that would have had a homer or two if not for the wind last weekend.
You can’t talk about the Gators’ offense without mentioning the middle infielders. Josh Rivera and Cade Kurland have each set UF single-season home run records for their position with 16 apiece.
Rivera came up huge for the Gators on Monday going 3-4 with two runs scored and a RBI. Kurland is mired in a slump right now. He’s hitting just .207 since the SEC Tournament and isn’t getting on base at a good enough clip. With Langford, Caglianone, Rivera, and Riopelle behind him, Kurland needs to be getting on base and scoring runs.
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