Gators Clawing its Way Back into Tournament Contention

With one foot in the grave, the Florida Gators are back in postseason contention after winning eight of its last nine games.

Cade Kurland (4), Luke Heyman (28) and Colby Shelton (10) celebrate with Brendan Lawson (11) after the freshman's three-run home run against Jacksonville. The Florida Gators would go on to win 16-4. | Kyle Lander / Gators Illustrated

GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- With four conference series with the SEC's top two teams still on the schedule for the Florida Gators baseball team, making the postseason is far from guaranteed. However, the Gators have clawed their way back into postseason contention after a recent stretch of success.

While the Gators have been slowly salvaging their season at the right time, winning eight of their last nine and five of their last six conference games, none of it will matter if their performance levels drop over these final weeks. 

That being said, stacking late wins has given the Gators some late life and hope to potentially sneak their way into the postseason for the second-straight year. They’ll need to continue to be this version of themselves to finish the job and it starts with the three-game series against No. 5 Arkansas this week. 

“Yeah, we’re at home. Expectations haven’t changed,” head coach Kevin O’Sullivan said after Tuesday's win over Georgia Southern. “We put ourselves in a difficult situation, but it's certainly doable. This is an important series for us, for sure.”

It’ll be important for Florida that they don’t get too far ahead of themselves after putting themselves back in play for a tournament berth. The Gators will have to take it one game at a time and try to tally win after win, which O'Sullivan reiterated when detailing the message he has for his team for this upcoming series. 

“Same one it’s been for the last month,” O’Sullivan said, “It's one pitch at a time, one game at a time. I’m sure they know that Arkansas is a complete team. They’re very talented and obviously we’ll have to play our best. Simple as that.”

Florida's players have listened very well to the message, especially catcher/first baseman Luke Heyman. Heyman has 24 hits, six homers and 22 RBIs in his last 16 games to lead the way, and others around him are beginning to find success.

Joining Heyman in being red hot at the plate are shortstop Colby Shelton and freshman versatile infielder Brendan Lawson. Shelton has racked up 10 multi-hit games over his last 16 games totaling 25 hits and 12 RBIs in that span. Lawson has managed 19 hits in his last 15 games and four-straight multi-hit games also. 

Hitting hasn’t been the only area where the Gators have seen some positive movement. After evident struggles from Florida's pitching staff in all facets, O’Sullivan is also getting more out of Jake Clemente in his new role out of the bullpen. Clemente has only surrendered two earned runs since the beginning of April. In that same period, he’s thrown 10.1 innings, struck out 18 batters and recorded three saves.  

While these four have stood out, it will take a team-wide effort for the Gators to make the necessary push into the NCAA Tournament, especially with a loaded schedule remaining.

After this weekend's three-game series against Arkansas, who is second in the SEC standings, Florida has back-to-back road trips to South Carolina and to Texas, who sits atop the SEC's standings. Then, they’ll return to home to host Alabama to finish off their regular season.

Florida will likely need to win two, if not three of these series to continue their season without an automatic bid from winning the SEC Tournament. If they don’t manage that, then the only other way in will be by taking home a conference title.