Florida Gators set rotation for Opening Weekend
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — On the eve of the 2023 season the Florida Gators weekend rotation has been set. Florida entered the season with no questions as to who would start on Friday or Saturday but the Sunday starter remained unknown.
Unknown no more, sophomore left-hander Jac Caglianone will start this Sunday for Florida.
“Honestly, if we’re going to be as good as we want to be, he’s going to have to pitch significant innings for us. He’s just too talented to not run him out there as much as you can. There’s going to be some growing pains, because it’s been since May of his senior year I think since he’s actually pitched in a real competitive game other than the fall,” Kevin O’Sullivan said of Caglianone. “You don’t have many players that can hit a baseball over a 100 mph and throw close to a 100 on the mound. They just don’t come around very often. We’re going to have to be patient with him. There will be some growing pains, but like I said, for us to be as good as we want to be he’s going to have to be an integral part of this whole thing.”
Friday: Brandon Sproat
Sproat will return to the Friday role that he assumed after Hunter Barco went down with a UCL injury in 2022. Sproat finished last season on a tear then spurned the New York Mets in favor of returning to Florida.
This time last year, Sproat wasn’t even part of the weekend rotation.
I mean, where he was last year [at this time], he wasn’t even in the weekend rotation, and now to see how he is performing, how he is handling failure, it’s like night and day,” O’Sullivan said.
Coming back to school means Sproat is betting on himself. O’Sullivan and the Gators need that bet to pay off in 2023.
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Saturday: Hurston Waldrep
The Southern Miss transfer is primed for his first campaign with the Gators. Waldrep is widely regarded as one of the top arms in the nation. Waldrep was named a 2022 Third Team All-American by D1Baseball after churning out 90 frames of 3.20 ERA ball with 140 strikeouts – translating to 14.0 strikeouts per nine innings. The Georgia native was equally brilliant in limited action as a freshman in 2021, working to a 3.35 ERA and .217 batting average against with 16 strikeouts in 16 1/3 innings of work. That track record carried into this past fall, where Waldrep fired four scoreless frames against Georgia and Stetson, highlighted by an immaculate inning against the Hatters.
Sunday Jac Caglianone
The 6-5, 245-pound pitcher ranked 4th nationally amongst left-handers and first in the state of Florida, according to Perfect Game. Caglianone burst on the scene late in 2022. After Tommy John surgery in his senior year of high school — probably the reason he even made it to school. Caglianone batted .288 and hit seven home runs in just 104 plate appearances.
He’ll get a chance to show what he’s capable of on the mound this weekend. Caglianone tipped triple digits in Jacksonville in a scrimmage against Georgia. He features an arsenal with a fastball that sits in the upper 90s complemented by a curveball and a slider.
