The Gators baseball team was in action Tuesday night, seemingly overshadowed by another disappointing basketball loss. The result was much better on the diamond, though, as the Gators improved to 6-6 on the season by beating the USF Bulls 10-5.
While the final score may indicate that this game was an easy win over our opponent from the South, this was very much not the case. In fact, it took a seven-run ninth inning to take the lead over the Bulls after being down as many as three runs early in the game.
This was the first road game of the season for the Gators, who were coming off of a series loss at the hands of the Kent State Golden Flashes. The turbulent series saw the Gators commit six errors in game one, cruise to a shutout in game two and produce no runs in the third outing.
Relief pitcher Kyle Mullaney picked up his first win on the season, coming in during the eighth inning. He pitched 1.0 innings, giving up two hits and striking out two.
Freshman Kevin Chapman got the start against the Bulls, his first start since he was knocked around by the explosive Florida State offense last week. In the game Chapman pitched 3.2 innings, giving up one earned run (three overall) on four hits. If you remember, he pitched seven shutout innings against FAMU in his first appearance, but has not been near as impressive over the last few games -- which of course is due to the level of competition.
Some major news from this game was the return of Matt LaPorta, who only had to sit out two games due to an ankle injury suffered in game one against Kent State. The injury, which looked pretty scary when it happened, was not enough to keep him out long-term; He did not play in the field, however, as he was in the lineup role on Tuesday night. On the game he went 2-3, picking up an RBI and a walk in the process.
This is very good news on LaPorta, who has cemented himself as the clear best-hitter on this team.
Anyways, on to the real reason why I wanted to get this post up...I wanted to put up a link to CollegeSplits.com -- a college baseball stats site that is a project of the SB Nation's own Jeff Sackman, who runs Brew Crew Ball.
CollegeSplits has cumulative stats from the season, including batters' and pitchers' numbers splits against left-handers and right-handers. It also includes situational stats, including month-by-month breakdowns, numbers with zero, one and two outs and when runners are in scoring position.
If you're interested in stats at all, especially baseball, I'd especially recommend this site to you. If you want to check out the Gators' splits from this young season, you can find it here.
The next Gators baseball series is this weekend, at home against George Washington University. The three-game set will start Friday at 6:30 pm, with the two day games starting at 2:00 pm. This should definitely be a series win for the Gators -- if not, then it's time to worry.