Florida baseball enters College World Series Final with rotation set

OMAHA, Neb. — The Florida baseball team will face the LSU Tigers in the College World Series final on Saturday afternoon. As the No. 2 National Seed, Florida will be the home team in the first game and the third, “if necessary game.”

By way of going 3-0 in Omaha, the Gators have set its pitching staff up perfectly for the weekend. Florida will have Brandon Sproat, Hurston Waldrep, and Jac Caglianone all available for the CWS final on full rest. While LSU has had to play two more games than the Gators have, stretching its pitching thin. This is, of course, only one piece of the puzzle.

In each of the last five instances in Omaha when only one bracket played its if necessary game, the team that played that extra game went on to win the championship series. Getting an extra day of rest and having your staff set up the way you would like it is an advantage but it doesn’t guarantee victory.

“There’s a lot of things that have to go right. This team is different than the ’17 team in a lot of ways, but in the most important ways for me, very similar. Starting pitching in ’17 was outstanding. I feel like our starting pitching is pitching the best they have all year,” Kevin O’Sullivan said after beating TCU. “We had Michael Burns at the end. Now we have Brandon Neely at the end. I don’t think we made an error in ’17 in five or six games that we played. And we’re playing really good defense right now, knock on wood.

Still, this is a Florida staff that has really starting playing its best baseball at the right time. The Gators’ pitching staff holds a 2.33 ERA in 10 NCAA Tournament games.

Brandon Sproat starts in NCAA Tournament

Sproat hasn’t been at his best but has been steady for the Gators. He has fired three consecutive quality starts and was very good against a great Virginia lineup. He didn’t factor into the decision but he gave his team the chance to win.

“The first couple of innings we knew they were coming out trying to ambush the fastball. We went out there just to see how they would approach to it. And that was their game plan,” Sproat said after his start vs Virginia. “I would say probably the third inning on kind of relied on the off-speed early. Kind of mix and match hitters with the first pitch, whether it was first-pitch fastball or first-pitch change-up. But what was working for me was, like I said, the off-speed early and often, and kind of the put-out pitch with the change-up.

Opponent	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	Pitches
Texas Tech	6.0	4	3	3	2	7	99
South Carolina	6.0	9	3	3	2	7	105
Virginia	6.1	5	3	3	3	7	109
Totals:	18.1 IP	18 H	9 R	9 ER (4.42 ERA)	7 BB	21 K	313

Hurston Waldrep starts in NCAA Tournament

Waldrep has been dominant since the tournament started. He has allowed just two earned runs over his last three starts.

“I think he’s been able to make adjustments in game. You can kind of tell they were swinging early in the count. And he’s had the ability to throw his curveball and his slider and a split early in the count. I think maybe through the first half of the year his split was more of a two-strike pitch. Now he’s been able to slow the ball down. And when people are swinging early in the count like they did, he’s got multiple weapons he can go to.”

Opponent	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	Pitches
UConn	7.0	5	1	1	2	12	101
South Carolina	8.0	3	0	0	2	13	117
Oral Roberts	6.0	7	1	1	3	12	103
Totals:	21.0 IP	15 H	2 r	2 ER (0.86 ERA)	7 BB	37	321

Jac Caglianone starts in NCAA Tournament

Caglianone would be available to pitch out of the bullpen. Kevin O’Sullivan showed that in 2017 when he went with Jackson Kowar out of the bullpen to close out a game against LSU. It’s more likely, given the way that Florida has pitched this postseason that Caglianone would be held for the “if necessary” game three.

Opponent	IP	H	R	ER	BB	K	Pitches
FAMU	6.0	4	0	0	3	7	95
TCU	4.1	3	1	1	3	4	85
Totals:	10.1	7	1	1	6	11	180