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A look ahead to baseball season

  • ...from our South Carolina site. They call the Florida series the third-best on the schedule for the Gamecocks this year, and they have a succinct little capsule on the Gators.

    3. Florida: Head coach Kevin O’Sullivan lost the bulk of his team from a year ago and also lost the primary pieces from his recruiting class. That doesn’t mean the Gators are going to face a significant drop-off as they’ve recently built one of the best programs in the country.

    The pitching staff, which is what the Gators have been built on during their recent run of success, is depleted but Jonathan Crawford could be one of the best in the country. He had an incredible season-ending run in 2012, which included a no-hitter in the Regional round against Bethune-Cookman. The right-hander started nine weekends in conference play posting a 3-1 record and 2.56 ERA. At one point during the postseason, he retired a streak of 25 consecutive hitters. Gone are Hudson Randall, Brian Johnson, Austin Maddox, and plenty of other names that have become mainstays in college baseball. Karsten Whitson will have to elevate his game a notch and other young pitchers will have to emerge for the Gators to stay on top.

    The Gators lost a lot of their top hitters, too, but they also have one of the better rising sophomore classes in the country. Infielder Josh Tobias is a great hitter and could play second or third while Taylor Gushue will play an even bigger role this year than his 39 starts a year ago. He struggled in SEC play but is ready to take the next step. Utility man Justin Shafer, who hit .315 in the Cape Cod League over the summer, will man an outfield spot after hitting .264 in conference play a year ago.

    This post was edited by Thomas Goldkamp on 1/21/2013 at 7:12 PM

    A look at the four best Gamecocks baseball series this year

    Today, with four days before the start of the preseason, we take a look at the best opponents that the Gamecocks will play this year in a three-game series.

    southcarolina.247sports.com

    Staff reporter. Twitter: www.twitter.com/Goldkamp247 | Facebook: www.facebook.com/thomasgoldkampmedia

    Thomas Goldkamp

  • Can't view it.

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    SUGator51

  • Not working

    Stiller

  • Odd, works fine for me. I'll paste the bit about Florida into the OP.

    Staff reporter. Twitter: www.twitter.com/Goldkamp247 | Facebook: www.facebook.com/thomasgoldkampmedia

    Thomas Goldkamp

  • good stuff... might be a rough one this yr.. hopefully our pitchers can carry the team and we find some new guys to fill into the bullpen spots

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    I'm itchin for some 1 on 1's . . like I wanna line up a whole bunch of offensive lineman up and murk they ass - Dante Fowler

    mslugga35

  • Any idea what your rotation/lineup will look like this year? I know you lost a lot on offense but am a huge fan of your pitching.

    NoleBrave03

  • NoleBrave03 said...

    Any idea what your rotation/lineup will look like this year? I know you lost a lot on offense but am a huge fan of your pitching.

    Third weekend starter is a bit of a question mark, at least for me, but Florida will have a solid 1-2 in Karsten Whitson and Jonathon Crawford. My guess is Johnny Magliozzi, Ryan Harris or Corey Stump takes that third spot -- but that's mostly speculation on my part. Haven't really followed the team much since the spring.

    Staff reporter. Twitter: www.twitter.com/Goldkamp247 | Facebook: www.facebook.com/thomasgoldkampmedia

    Thomas Goldkamp

  • The teams lucky because Crawford was very close to leaving the team before last season. Would have been a weak rotation.

    Stiller

  • Im expecting a big drop off from the past two seasons, hopefully im wrong.

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    Demi Lovato

    CLF4L