Game 1: Gators 7, Miami 2
Game 2: Gators 7, Miami 5
Game 3: Miami 10, Gators 7
Despite the disappointing loss to the 'Canes today, the weekend was an overall positive for a Gators team who seemed to be trying to find exactly how good they could be.
Following a series loss to VMI the Gators met up with their rivals from the South, a team coming off of a big-time sweep of UCLA, to try and get a successful season rolling.
One extreme positive from this series would have to be SP Bryan Augenstein, who started for the Gators Friday night. Augenstein was coming off of a loss to VMI, a game in which he pitched pretty well in, and looked pretty fierce against the Hurricanes. Over seven innings he only gave up three hits and struck out seven batters.
Stephen Porter came out of the bullpen in this series and was very impressive as well. He made appearances in games one and three -- pitching a combined 5.2 innings, giving up four hits, no runs and striking out four against the Hurricanes.
The Gators got production out of different people this series. SS Jon Townsend went 2-4 in game one, hitting a homer and scoring two runs. 2B Cole Figueroa went 2-5 in game two, homering once and knocking in two. And game three belonged to Matt LaPorta, who hit two homeruns and knocked in five altogether.
As you can see the infield has been a huge chunk of the Gators offense this season. Of course that has a lot to do with LaPorta, who is looked at as one of the better hitters in all of the country, but it is definitely good to see the middle infielders hitting well out of the one and two spots in the lineup.
This series was one riddled with errors from the start. The two teams combined for 16 mishaps in the three games, including Miami committing five on Friday and the Gators committing three in both game two and game three. This will be a major problem for the Gators if it continues -- hopefully we see them hit the practice field hard and work out some of this sloppy fielding.
The Gators will have even more of a challenge in front of them on Tuesday, as the Florida State Seminoles travel to Gainesville. The 'Noles are playing some good baseball right now and it will take a great effort to beat them. After this weekend's series it is a very realistic possibility.
I'm happy with the performance against Miami and hope to see the Gators continue to get better. The VMI series all of a sudden feels like it was so long ago now.
Gatorzone Photo
Go Gators!!!