SEC Tournament preview: Florida Gators vs Alabama Crimson Tide

HOOVER, Ala. — The 2023 SEC Tournament began on Tuesday afternoon but the Florida Gators will join it on Tuesday. As the No. 1 seed, Florida was awarded a bye and will open the up tournament against the No. 24 Alabama Crimson Tide.

Florida and Alabama played earlier in the year with the Gators taking two of three over the Tide. The jerseys may be the same but the teams have been through a lot since they met in the middle of March.

Tuesday’s game is scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. ET and will be shown on SEC Network.

Starting on the mound for the Gators

Florida will turn to Hurston Waldrep on the mound Wednesday for the first game in the double-elimination format. Waldrep opening up the SEC Tournament doesn’t signify that Kevin O’Sullivan is shaking up his pitching rotation.

During the final homestand of the season, Waldrep’s start was cut short due to rain. Having thrown just 10 pitches on Saturday, Kevin O’Sullivan elected to throw Waldrep to start the next series, which began on a Thursday. This allowed Waldrep, who was rested, to throw on Thursday night and it kept Brandon Sproat on his typical rest of six days between starts (typical and standard for college pitchers).

This week everybody will be on short rest. Waldrep last threw on Thursday, so this is just one less day for the junior than he’s accustomed to. If Sproat were to have been called on today, he would have been pitching on two fewer days of rest than he’s accustomed to.

Florida will be looking to get starts from each of its three starters this week. Outside of that …

What does this week mean for the Gators?

Not a lot, to be frank.

The Gators have locked up a National Seed. Right now they’re the No. 2 team in the country and even an 0-2 week in Hoover won’t change Florida’s National Seeding.

Kevin O’Sullivan knows this. He and his club have been in this position before. Would it be cool to win the SEC Championship and the SEC Tournament, yeah, sure. It’s not cool enough that you would waste or ruin your starting pitchers to win this week when you have the NCAA Tournament — a tournament that matters — next week.

2022 was different. The Gators entered Hoover on the NCAA Tournament bubble. They’d likely make the tournament but they certainly wouldn’t host it. Florida was going to need to make a run if they wanted to host. They did just that.

A team like that this week would be Texas A&M. The Aggies beat Tennessee 3-0 on Tuesday to move into the double-elimination portion of the tournament. They’ll face Arkansas on Wednesday. A win over Arkansas and a run in the tournament could do a lot for the Aggies’ postseason résumé.

Florida would like to win the SEC Tournament, but they won’t kill themselves or hurt their team in the long run to do it.

Scouting Alabama

The Crimson Tide is one of the hottest teams in the country since its head coach was fired amid a gambling controversy. Alabama has won nine of its last 11 games, outscored opponents 74-26 since, and is in hosting contention, something they haven’t done since 2006.

Waldrep threw the finale against Alabama when the two teams met in March to kick off the SEC slate. He gave up four runs, three earned on seven hits over six innings of work. Waldrep was saddled with the loss, his first of the season.

The biggest test for Waldrep will be outfielder Andre Pinckney. The SEC Co-Scholar Athlete of the Year was also named to the All-SEC Second Team. He launched a mammoth home run in the Tide’s shutout win over Kentucky on Tuesday as well.

Alabama has yet to announce its starting pitcher. Alabama will likely turn to Luke Holman. The Sinking Springs, Pensylvania native totaled a team-high seven wins to tie for fourth in the SEC

Wednesday schedule

Wednesday, May 24 (Double elimination format)

Morning games

Game 5 (10:30 a.m.) – #3 LSU vs. South Carolina

Game 6 (TBD) – #2 Arkansas vs. Texas A&M

Night games

Game 7 (5:30 p.m.) – #1 Florida vs. Alabama

Game 8 (TBD) – #4 Vanderbilt vs. Auburn