Baseball: It looked like Florida baseball had turned a corner. The team managed to light up LSU pitching to the tune of 16 runs on Thursday to stake an early claim to a huge series.
Unfortunately, outside of freshman Cory Acton, the offense failed to show up for the remainder of the series.
While the failures of the offense were certainly a cause for concern, the pitching staff may be even more troubling. The bullpen was atrocious, giving up 18 runs in 14.1 innings over the three game set.
However, help may be on the way. Austin Langworthy made appearances in relief on Saturday and Sunday and made an impression. Langworthy tossed 4 innings allowing one hit while striking out three and walking one.
One other positive from the weekend: the emergence of Acton. Despite only hitting 3-13 for the series, he did smack homers in each of the games and accounted for all the scoring in games two and three.
Florida faces FAU on Tuesday before a weekend series against Kentucky.
Softball: Florida softball’s eight game winning streak came to an abrupt halt on Friday as the Gators dropped both ends of a double-header before dropping the series finale to Alabama on Saturday.
Kelly Barnhill and Elizabeth Hightower (as well as Natalie Lugo and Katie Chronister) pitched well enough to earn wins but the offense was a no-show, again.
Outside of Amanda Lorenz and Kendyl Lindaman, the offense is non-existent. Coming into the season, the offense was expected to be explosive and was supposed to help carry a young pitching staff outside of Barnhill. That just hasn’t happened. On paper, this team entered the season deeper and more talented than almost all of the previous teams at UF.
Too often UF hitters are finding themselves down in counts due to their patience(?) at the plate, which is forcing them to swing at pitches outside the zone.
*Umpiring was terrible this weekend as the picture above illustrates, but the little margin that may have been gained by the calls are lost by the fact that this team has done this all season.
Lacrosse: The highlight of the weekend was the performance of the Gators lacrosse team. Florida traveled to Connecticut and took down the Huskies 16-5 on Saturday.
Despite allowing the opening score, the Gators reeled off four straight before eventually taking an 8-2 advantage.
Shannon Kavanagh found the back of the net five times for her eleventh hat-trick of the season to lead the effort.
The Gators will take on Cincinnati on Saturday with a conference title on the line. Get out to Dizney Stadium and cheer the Gators to the championship!
Men’s Tennis: Florida fell in the SEC Tournament semifinals to Tennessee despite leading 3-1 at one point. The Gators will await the NCAA selection show on April 29 to see where they will play for to open the tournament.
Women’s Tennis: Florida dropped an SEC Tournament quarterfinal match against South Carolina. The Gators will await their NCAA fate for the selection show on April 29.
Misc.: Garth Brooks brought the thunder to Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on Saturday. The concert was the first held at the stadium since 1994 and it was obvious by the traffic and lack of crowd control inside the stadium.
That being said, once the show started, Garth Brooks didn’t disappoint.
It will be interesting if UF seeks more concerts in the future, something I have strongly advocated for in the past.
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Tell us your thoughts on last weekend’s performances and where the program’s can go moving forward. Were you at the show on Saturday? Tell us what you thought of the evening in the Swamp.