Florida Gators

HOOVER, Ala. -- The Florida Gators couldn't overcome a lack of timely hits against the Vanderbilt Commodores on Thursday night, losing 2-1 in the third round of the SEC baseball tournament.

The Gators stranded 11 runners on base against Vanderbilt pitching, leaving opportunities on the base paths nearly every inning of the three-hour game. UF mustered just four hits, only one going for extra bases.

Vanderbilt starting pitcher Sam Selman walked away with his ninth win of the year, allowing two hits in seven innings of work. The freshman threw 120 pitches, struggling with control throughout the night. In addition to four walks, he hit two batters. But his above-average fastball and biting curveball were enough to keep the Gators off balance.

“Yeah, he was pretty good. He pitched out of trouble," said VU coach Tim Corbin. "This is something that we have seen here in the last 10 weeks. It is hard to pinpoint one guy, but our success as a team stems a lot from what he was doing.

Selman blew away the UF hitters at points, striking out seven batters. Corbin said after the game that he's been proud of the way Selman has competed throughout the season.

"He has come a long way," Corbin said. "He has a good arm. He has always been able to throw the fastball. The reason he is having success is his ability to throw breaking balls and fastballs for strikes.”

UF coach Kevin O'Sullivan said simply to give credit where it was due.

"He beat us," O'Sullivan said of Selman. "It was just one of those nights. I think you have to give all the credit to Selman. He threw the ball really well.

“He threw just enough breaking balls for strikes to keep us off. He really located his fastball [against] the right-handers. He did a really good job of that tonight.”

Redshirt freshman Preston Tucker started the game in right field, hitting third in the batting order. Despite driving in UF's only run with a sacrifice fly, he said he was disappointed with the way the team as a whole performed at the plate.

“It’s obviously frustrating when you’re not swinging the bat well," Tucker said. "Our guys couldn’t put anything together. We were getting people on base late in the inning when we couldn’t really start anything going. Then when we had runners in scoring position, we couldn’t really cash in. It was a combination of things.”

Hudson Randall started on the mound for UF but didn't have his normal control, walking two batters in the fourth inning that led to both of the Commodores runs. It was only his eighth and ninth walks of the season in more than 78 innings of work. It's just his second loss of the season.

“I was looking for a better start out of myself," Randall said. "I guess I didn’t have my best stuff. I was just competing as hard as I could out there, and they came up with a big hit when they needed it.”

Florida will face South Carolina on Friday afternoon.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- All Amanda O’Leary had to sell was a promise.

Florida’s lacrosse coach had a University of Florida shirt in 2007, but little else as she began recruiting players for the Gators’ new program, which wasn’t scheduled to begin play for nearly three years. No facility. No stadium. No equipment. Just a promise that the Gators would eventually compete for a national championship.

"We had nothing to show them," O’Leary remembered. "They would come on their recruiting visits and we had no stadium, we had no tradition, we had nothing to show them.

"They basically bought into something."

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In espnW's countdown of the top 40 female athletes of the past four decades, gold medalist and world record-holder Tracy Caulkins ranks at No. 23. Read more about the former Florida swimmer with 12 NCAA titles and a host of other accolades here.

The staff of GatorNation just completed a live chat in The Chompions Club. We hit on all the football and recruiting subjects with our special guest, ESPN recruiting analyst Corey Long, who covers the state of Florida.

Click here for a complete transcript. Here are some highlights:

secrocks2000: Is there really such thing as a gentleman's agreement between [Will] Muschamp and [Urban] Meyer that says they won't recruit each others committed players? And if so did Meyer break it calling [UF linebacker commit James] Hearns?

Corey Long: Well look at it this way. Will Muschamp and Jimbo Fisher own a beach house together, and they will go after each other's commitments. So Urban Meyer and Muschamp have nothing holding them back from prospects.

Derek Tyson: Absolutely not. In fact, I've heard from a good source that Muschamp "would have gone after Meyer's recruits" if the roles were reversed.

Long: Some Gator fans need to get over Urban. He's not your boyfriend anymore, and he wants to win at Ohio State more than he loves Florida.

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HOOVER, Ala. -- Jonathan Crawford wasted no time acclimating himself to life in the postseason. The true sophomore who threw exclusively out of the Florida bullpen last year shrugged as he stepped on the pitching mound Tuesday at Regions Field for the start of the SEC baseball tournament. The lanky right-hander then proceeded to blow away the Auburn Tigers, pitching 5.2 innings of two-hit baseball and leading the Gators to a first-round win, 6-1.

Auburn did not get a single hit out of the infield against Crawford -- one hit coming on a bunt single and the other on a dribbler that the first baseman and the pitcher lost in their crosshairs.

Crawford tiptoed around four walks and an error, throwing some 85 pitches on the afternoon. After the game, UF coach Kevin O’Sullivan called Crawford one of the team’s MVPs for all his work in the starting rotation and out of the bullpen.

“Jonathan did an outstanding job. He gave us a great start,” O’Sullivan said. "It all starts on the mound and Jonathan threw well today.

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We'll break down the Florida Gators' schedule today:

Non-conference opponents (with 2011 records)

Sept. 1: Bowling Green (5-7)
Nov. 10: Louisiana-Lafayette (9-4)
Nov. 17: Jacksonville State (7-4)
Nov. 24: Florida State (9-4)

SEC home games

Sept. 22: Kentucky
Oct. 6: LSU
Oct. 20: South Carolina
Nov. 3: Missouri

SEC road games

Sept. 8: at Texas A&M
Sept. 15: at Tennessee
Oct. 13: at Vanderbilt
Oct. 27: vs. Georgia, in Jacksonville, Fla.

Gut-check time: LSU embarrassed Florida last season in Baton Rouge and has won the last two games in this series. Will Muschamp could use a breakthrough win in his second season, and taking down the Tigers in the Swamp would certainly qualify. Depending on how the Gators start the season, it could be a huge game. It's not a complete stretch to think that Florida could be 4-0 when LSU visits on Oct. 6. What's more, the Gators have a bye week leading into the game. History suggests that the winner of this game is destined for a big season. Each of the past seven years, the winning team has gone on to win at least 11 games and has played in the BCS National Championship Game four times.

Trap game: The SEC opener against Texas A&M in College Station has danger written all over it. The Aggies will be sky-high about playing their first SEC game, and you know Kyle Field will be rocking. If the Gators aren't on top of their game in Week 2, they won't get out alive.

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ALPHARETTA, Ga. -- There's no question that Florida coach Will Muschamp feels much better about his team now compared to a year ago. But there's still work to be done. Here are a few extra notes Muschamp covered with ESPN.com before he spoke to the Atlanta Gator Club last week:

QB battle: At this point, flipping a coin might be the best way to determine this race. While it might seem that Jacoby Brissett holds a tiny advantage over Jeff Driskel because of his experience, Muschamp insisted they are still even, and finding the better leader during summer workouts could determine everything. But even that will be tough, he added. Right now, he said, both have the intangibles and the natural leadership skills to be successful, and he thinks players respect and respond to each equally.

"Their competition is going to make each other better, and that's going to make our offense better, which will make our football team better," Muschamp said.

So if summer doesn't push one ahead of the other and fall camp still doesn't create separation, what then?

"I'll take both of them," he said with a laugh. "I may just put them in at the same time and make everybody mad."

To be continued ...

Powell and Easley: Coaches and players were devastated about the news of defensive end/linebacker Ronald Powell's ACL tear during the spring game, especially after the solid spring he had, but Muschamp said there has been optimism surrounding his injury. Powell is expected to miss four to six months, as he recovers from surgery, but Muschamp said Powell has progressed quite quickly. He's off crutches and walking fine. There's still a long way to go in his rehab, but there's increasing hope that he'll still play this fall. I'm skeptical about how effective he'll be after such a short amount of recovery, but we're seeing athletes come back faster and faster from ACL injuries.

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