ChompTalk.com

Florida baseball is on the precipice of something that’s never happened under the direction of coach Kevin O’Sullivan. Sitting at 20-14 with a 1-11 conference record, and being swept for a consecutive home conference series for the first time since 2004 — and the first time being swept at home by Vanderbilt period — UF is in serious jeopardy of missing the postseason for the first time in 16 years.

The Gators were close last year, too, but 13 SEC wins and a record just above .500 helped subside concerns about a weak non-conference resume and cleared a path for Florida to reach the College World Series for the second year in a row. Thirteen wins will probably get the job done here, but UF needs to go 12-6 over its final 18 conference matchups, including sweeps of Mizzou and Mississippi State over the next two weekends, to make it happen.

Here’s two major fixes the Gators need to make in order to get 13 conference wins:

Situational hitting

The Gators are not untalented at the plate. But they’re playing like it. Florida went 4-for-29 with runners and scoring position and left the bases stranded full five times over the weekend. In addition, UF seemed incapable of getting rebound runs following frames where Vandy scored.

“It’s been the same old story all year about giving up rebound runs,” said a clearly frustrated O’Sullivan after Sunday’s loss.

Catcher Luke Heyman has been the one bright spot in conference play, batting .386 with four homers and 11 RBIs. Colby Shelton isn’t far behind him at .333, but hasn’t put away many clutch runs until this weekend when he hit back-to-back jacks with Bobby Boser.

If another hitter (a.k.a Brendan Lawson or Brody Donay) can join up with those three in hitting better situationally, the Florida bats will be okay.

Three outs, not two

It’s almost hard to watch the Gators play baseball when the opponent is on offense with two outs. Their playmaking and decision making strays so far from a winning team’s, it’s horrific. I’d like to bring out some nifty stat to show you it’s okay or a way to make it right, but there isn’t one. Florida simply needs to start making pitches and finishing plays behind their arms.

“We’ve talked about it. There’re certain points in a game you gotta rise up and you gotta make pitches. That’s part of it,” O’Sullivan said.

Florida has a big chance to turn things around at home Tuesday against Florida State at 7 p.m. on ESPN.