The Baseball Observer - Jan/ Feb 2016
GAINESVILLE, Fla. - The Florida team that advanced to Omaha last June was good enough to win the program's first national title.
The coaches knew it. The players knew it. The media knew it. And Virginia, the eventual national champion, definitely knew it. The Cavaliers had to hold off the Gators in a pair of one-run battles at TD Ameritrade Park.
Florida's stay in Omaha mostly came down to the little things in the end. The Gators missed key scoring opportunities in a season-ending 5-4 loss to the Cavaliers with a berth in the championship series on the line.
The Cavaliers, who finished .500 (15-15) in the ACC during the regular season, went on to defeat Vanderbilt in the best-of-three championship series. That's baseball in a nutshell. Perhaps more than in any other sport, the best team doesn't always win, a lesson the 2012 Gators experienced as well.
As the Gators prepare for the 2016 season opener on Feb. 19 against Florida Gulf Coast University, opinions on where Florida stacks up with the best in the country have not changed.
In recent weeks Collegiate Baseball, D1Baseball.com, and PerfectGame.org - three media outlets that cover the
college game in-depth throughout the year - have tabbed the Gators No. 1 in their preseason polls.
Entering his ninth year at UF, head coach Kevin O'Sullivan considers this year's team one of his best. The Gators' roster is talented, deep and well-balanced.
The Gators lost outfielder Harrison Bader and the left side of their infield in third baseman Josh Tobias and shortstop Richie Martin, but first baseman Peter Alonso (.301, 5 HR, 32 RBI), second baseman Dalton Guthrie (.287, 2, 26), outfielders Buddy Reed (.305, 4, 47) and Ryan Larson (.305, 1, 25), and the catching tandem of JJ Schwarz (.332, 18, 73) and Mike Rivera (.271, 3, 48) provide plenty of firepower in the lineup.
And then there's the pitching. The Gators are loaded with lively arms, the primary reason so many analysts see them as the team to beat.
Junior right-hander Logan Shore (11-6, 2.72 ERA), junior lefty A.J. Puk (9-4, 3.81), and right-handers Dane Dunning (5-2, 4.03) and Alex Faedo (6-1, 3.23) form as deep a starting rotation as there is in the nation.
NCAA DI TEAMS TO WATCH
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NCAA DI TEAMS TO WATCH
FLORIDA
#1
By Scott Carter, Senior Writer - floridagators.com