Nebraska Cornhuskers: Florida insider lays out how to beat the Gators
The Nebraska Cornhuskers baseball team might be going up against a 28-27 Florida Gators team on Friday in the first round of the Stillwater Regional. Still, the SEC team is no pushover despite its record. It’s no pushover even though it needed to win two of its final three regular-season games to get over .500 and qualify for the postseason. They’ve still got some bangers.
Florida will pose a significant challenge. They're a formidable team, but they’re not unbeatable. Especially for a team like Nebraska, which boasts the second-best ERA of any team in the NCAA Tournament (Oklahoma State is the only team with a better earned run average).
In order to figure out I went right to the source. I talked to Benjamin Henderson, the site expert for Hail Florida Hail to pick his brain on Florida’s strengths and weaknesses. And what Nebraska Cornhuskers fans should watch for on Friday.
Nebraska Cornhuskers getting ready for a powerful Florida Gators team
Husker Corner: Friday’s starter for the Gators, Liam Peterson went from an ERA over 8.00 at the end of March to being quite good in May. Was that just a matter of a freshman figuring things out, or was there a tweak to his approach?
Henderson: “He came in as a top 100 prospect and had electric stuff as he was getting strikeouts, but he was prone to make the two or three bad pitches that would lead to home runs and kill his stat line. Head coach Kevin O’Sullivan made a quip in the middle of the season that the freshmen needed to stop acting like freshmen, and they had enough games under their belt at that point that they should not be making some of the mistakes they were making. Since then, Peterson has been able to avoid the long ball and clean up his stat lines.
HC: With a record of 28-27 and 13-17 in the SEC, how surprised were you to see them make the regionals or did Florida fans assume they were in once they got over .500?
Henderson: “Most projections had Florida in, and narcissistically most fans felt the Gators should have been in. Obviously their overall record is a talking point, and this team has its flaws, but Florida played the number one-ranked strength of schedule in the country and finished with 13 Quad 1 wins. None of the other bubble teams could compare when one considers Florida took the series from Texas A&M, Georgia, Miami, and Mississippi State.”
HC: What's the single biggest pressure point the Huskers need to push in order to beat Florida?
Henderson: “Florida was 160th nationally in on-base percentage and a big part of that was they only drew 4.2 walks per game. This is not a patient-hitting team, and for better or for worse, they are always swinging for the fences (7th in HR’s) So if I’m Nebraska, knowing that Florida knows that Stillwater is a hitter-friendly park, I force Florida to prove they can work deep counts and not just swing on the first or second pitch of every AB.”
We’ll see whether or not the Nebraska Cornhuskers can find that pressure point and push on Friday. The Huskers vs Florida is the first game of the region at 2pm on Friday, May 31. The game will be on ESPN+