Florida Gators will turn to Hurston Waldrep with season on the line
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Texas Tech head coach Tim Tadlock stated the abundantly obvious. Being 2-0 in a NCA Regional is much better than being 1-1. The Florida Gators dropped game two on Saturday night to Texas Tech, 5-4. Now they’ll turn to Hurston Waldrep at noon on Sunday with their season on the line.
Waldrep (7-3, 4.83) is slated to face Connecticut’s Garrett Coe (6-2, 4.01).
“It’s definitely a lot easier to win one of these, winning the first two than losing the second or the first one. It’s very hard to do it the other way,” Tadlock said. “And so yeah, it’s definitely put you in a good spot. At the same time, I think we’ve got a group that has the utmost respect for the other teams and the game. We’ll go eat dinner, enjoy it for a little bit and we’re gonna need to get ready to go tomorrow.”
Kevin O’Sullivan scoffed when asked if he would save Waldrep for a potential game four against UConn.
“Hurston, of course,” O’Sullivan said. “We don’t win our season’s over. So, yeah, that’s a pretty easy decision to make.”
The situation is familiar. Florida lost the second game of the 2022 Regional to Oklahoma and had to dig back.
Top 10
- 1New
Lamont Butler
Injury update on Kentucky star
- 2Hot
DeMarco Murray
PSU eyeing OU assistant
- 3
Seven QBs in first 3 rounds
New NFL mock draft
- 4Trending
Bracketology
Big movement after turbulent week
- 5
Paul Finebaum
CFB struggle to catch NFL
Get the On3 Top 10 to your inbox every morning
By clicking "Subscribe to Newsletter", I agree to On3's Privacy Notice, Terms, and use of my personal information described therein.
“We were in this position last year and ended up coming up short in the last game. Tomorrow we have to take it one pitch at a time, and really slow it down,” Brandon Sproat said. “Last year we learned from our mistakes with the loss that we took, learn from those, and move forward. Like I said, we just need to take it one pitch at a time and keep on pushing. None of these guys are ready to be done yet.”
The Gators will need a long start from Waldrep if they’re to climb the ladder back out of their own Regional. Florida would likely turn to Brandon Neely in the second game of a doubleheader.
Waldrep in the 2022 NCAA Tournament
Pitching for Southern Miss in 2022, Hurston Waldrep was tasked with pitching against LSU. He threw 6.2 innings, allowed five hits, two runs, walked two, and fanned 11 in a no-decision. Waldrep was back on the mound in a Super Regional against Ole Miss. The eventual National Champions got to Waldrep for six runs on five hits while he struck out 12.
UConn is hitting .239 (16-67) this weekend. The Huskies dropped their first game to Texas Tech 3-2 but stayed alive Saturday afternoon with a 9-6 win over Florida A&M.
