ChompTalk.com

Thirteen is the magic number. If you’ve been following Florida baseball before the last two weekend series (good on you), then you’ve definitely heard this. Even when the Gators were off to their worst-ever start in the SEC, fans could cling to the fact that Florida turned it around last year and made the NCAA tournament on the strength of its 13 SEC wins.

With a sweep of the South Carolina Gamecocks this past weekend, Florida sits at 11-13 in the SEC and need two wins in its final six conference matchups to be a lock for the postseason. But before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s look back at three highlights from the weekend:

The Yost with the most

Sophomore outfielder Hayden Yost has come into his own these past few series since taking over for Justin Nadeau in center field. This weekend was no different. Yost went 5-for-10 against the Gamecocks and hit two homers. His eight RBIs over the weekend were the most in the SEC and earned him conference Player of the Week honors.

“You know, the other guy that probably gets overlooked sometimes is Hayden Yost,” Florida head coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “He swung the bat extremely well today, you know, his home run there really opened up that second game.”

Florida always seems to have a guy step up out of the woodworks come tournament time, and Yost is definitely making his case as the next Gator to join those ranks.

Fire up the old PC

Maybe the best storyline from the weekend is the return of starting pitcher Pierce Coppola. The lefty has been battling injuries his entire collegiate career and was once again sidelined for two months after a great start to the season. He returned in game three, picking up two strikeouts and two walks in one scoreless inning.

It’s still not apparent to what extent Coppola will be pitching this coming weekend or by the tournament. Expect the Gators to take it slow. He might pitch one, maybe two more innings next Sunday. He might not pitch at all. But if Coppola is physically able to pitch in a potential postseason game, he’s the type who would go out there with the intent of leaving everything on the mound.

Bats are back and boomin’

It’s not just Yost who’s playing well at the dish right now. The Gators are swinging with some serious power right now and resembles the dangerous hitting lineup we’ve seen in years previous.

The Gators outscored South Carolina 39-8 over the weekend as eight of nine Florida starters recorded three hits on the weekend. Ty Evans and Yost, who entered the weekend with a pair of homeruns between them, combined for 16 RBIs on the weekend.

“Like I said, the big innings, usually the winning team scores more runs in one inning then the losing team does throughout all nine,” O’Sullivan said. “And we had three in the fourth, five in the eighth and 11 runs in the ninth.”

Florida will host USF for a midweek bout tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. before heading off to Austin for its inaugural SEC series against the No. 1 ranked Texas Longhorns.