LSU (18-4, 1-2) and Florida renew their baseball rivalry this weekend at Alex Box Stadium. It’s a rematch of last year’s national championship series won by the Tigers. That best of three set featured several star players that are now with major league teams.
But there will still be plenty of talent on the field at Alex Box Stadium as both teams come into this series ranked in the Top 10, LSU at number five, Florida at six in the D1baseball.com Top 25.
“There are bunch of guys on both teams finding their ways in new roles,” Johnson said. “Florida has a great offense, as good as anybody in the country. They really hit with power, and they hit mistakes.
Jac Caglianone is the Gators’ best hitter. The two-way star is hitting .414, with nine homers and 21 RBI.
“He’s aggressive, with great bat speed, I feel like he knows what his pitch is and he’s going for it when he gets it,” Johnson said. “Guys who can really pull the ball with power, authority and drive it and constantly hit mistakes, there’s a reason why he’s at the top of a lot of draft boards.”
Colby Shelton leads the team with ten home runs as he’s a transfer from Alabama. Tyler Shelnut is another guy with slug in his bat and he’s drilled seven homers.
LSU’s pitching was not good last weekend, but Johnson expected better results from them and the whole team after playing in front of a hostile crowd in Starkville.
“You know first time on the road, first time in an environment like that for a lot of guys, I think we learned a lot, now utilizing that to our advantage going forward,” said Johnson. “We put a lot of time into make sure those guys are better this weekend.”
Johnson is going with the same weekend rotation. Luke Holman on Friday, Gage Jump on Saturday and Thatcher Hurd on Sunday.
Florida (12-8, 2-1) has given up a bunch of runs this season. They are last in the SEC in team ERA at 5.78.
The Gators starting pitchers on Friday and Saturday both have bloated ERAs. Friday’s starter Cade Fisher is at 7.94 and Saturday’s starter, Liam Peterson is at 7.50.
Fisher can rack up the strikeouts. He has 37 in 22.2 innings. He was a freshman All-American last year as he pitched mainly out of the bullpen. But he’s taken his lumps as a Friday night starter, allowing four home runs on the season.
Peterson is a freshman, and he was one of the top high school pitchers in the country last season. He’s also susceptible to the home run ball as he’s given up seven of them. He allowed three home runs in just two innings of work against Texas A&M last week.
The Gators Sunday starter is outstanding. Caglianone is 2-0 with a 1.77 ERA and has 34 strikeouts in 20.1 innings. He struggles a little bit with command as he has 13 walks on the season.
