What the Gators are saying ahead of matchup with No. 1 Tennessee
The Florida Gators are set to host the No. 1 Tennessee Volunteers for a pivotal matchup to start the second half of SEC play.
Tennessee comes into the series as the best team in the country. The Vols have made themselves out to be the bad boys of baseball. They celebrate home runs with a faux fur coat and a pink hat that says daddy. Their head coach won’t be on the field the first two games after chest-bumping an umpire last Saturday during a win over Alabama. Tony Vitello turned that folly into a good cause, raising money for the Wounded Warrior Project.
Florida comes into the series just 6-9 in SEC play. The Vols enter 14-1 in the conference. They have steamrolled through the league, sweeping the first four series before dropping one game to Alabama last weekend.
Florida will have their hands full and will be without Friday night starter Hunter Barco.
Kevin O’Sullivan on Tennessee
“They’re well-rounded. They have three really good starters. I don’t know what they’re going to do in the rotation. They’ve got a couple guys, maybe one that got hit with a line drive the Saturday starter. They’re an older lineup. They can run. They’ve got power. They play good defense. They’ve got a few guys in the lineup that can run. They have a very talented weekend rotation. They have a bullpen that, they have really good matchups right and left. They’re older. It’ll be a challenge.
Gators in a tough spot, but play well at home
“We played Arkansas (No. 2 at the time) here. We played Vanderbilt and we were very competitive. My message to the team is this weekend is no different than any other. We’re in a position where we need to win games,” O’Sullivan said. “Whether it be Tennesse, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi State or South Carolina left on our schedule. They’re all important. I mean, I don’t want to put any more emphasis on this weekend than any other. We put ourselves in a position where we need to start winning some games in the league. That’s for sure.”
Gators center fielder Jud Fabian
Tennessee boasts a bevy of flamethrowers but none harder than Ben Joyce, who has been clocked as high as 104 this season.
Jud Fabian was asked about that following Tuesday’s win over Stetson.
“The harder he throws the further he goes. If you get the bat there. We’ll see what happens there.”
The big caveat there would be getting your bat to it.
“I think every time we play Tennessee the motivation level is high. Now that they’re ranked No. 1 it just adds more intensity to the series,” Fabian said. “I know we’re going to have a good two days of practice leading up. We’re going to give it all we got and play hard for nine innings every day. We’ll see what happens.”
Josh Rivera on Tennessee
“We’ve looked at them quite a lot. I know a lot of the guys here, we watch their games when we’re not playing. We go on YouTube and watch their highlights. We know they have a lot of talented young arms and some older guys. We’ve gotta be ready to play. At the end of the day baseball is anyone’s game. Anybody can get beat by anybody. We just gotta come out here and worry about that day when it comes. Listen to the scouting report. Do as much homework as we can do. Come out here that day and play as hard as we can.”
