He needed to be because, obviously, they're really good offensively. Pitched to both sides of the plate with his fastball. Brandon did a really nice job getting his breaking ball early in the count. I thought probably one of the turning points in the game was when it was a bang-bang play at first and the call was reversed. “Getting off to a good start offensively was important.
“Obviously, just getting the win was important,” O’Sullivan said. It was the overall performance Florida needed. “First inning started out with three Ks so we were hyped up and ready to hit.” While Sproat never swung a bat in the Gators’ win over the Razorbacks, O’Sullivan credited him with providing energy for the team’s offense to feed off of.Īfter Sproat struck out three in the first inning, Florida plated two runs in the home half of the inning on a sacrifice-fly and home run from outfielder Wyatt Langford. “That’s really when we got to bear down and just make pitches to get out of it,” Sproat said. The sophomore was able to limit the damage to just one run. After a review put a runner on first base for the Razorbacks, Sproat’s defense committed two costly errors on back-to-back plays. O’Sullivan also commended Sproat’s resilience on Friday night. When you do that, you got a chance to be successful and he did that tonight." I think at some point he threw 14 of 16 first-pitch strikes. “I think the biggest step forward for him was his curveball tonight,” O’Sullivan said. Entering play, the Gators had lost six straight SEC games, including an 8-1 defeat against Arkansas a night earlier despite having staff ace Hunter Barco on the mound.Īdditionally, Florida pitchers other than Barco had combined for a 4.88 ERA entering play on Friday night, calling into question the team’s ability to compete with top-caliber opponents without its best pitcher on the mound.Īnd while one outing should not quell those concerns, Sproat's productivity and grit against the country’s second-ranked team should at minimum provide the team and its fans with some hope with 24 games left on Florida’s regular-season schedule. There’s no understating the value of Sproat’s outing on Friday night against one of the nation’s most potent offenses. I don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves, but he pitched really good.” I think he's starting to come into his own. "It was big for everybody,” O’Sullivan said. Gator head coach Kevin O’Sullivan lauded his performance. In fact, he was Florida’s tone-setter in its 7-2 win, pitching 5 ? innings of one-run ball despite throwing a career-high 109 pitches.
2 Arkansas, Sproat seemed to regain that non-conference form. And while he managed to toss six innings of three-run ball against Georgia in his third SEC start, Sproat still had an unsightly 9.53 ERA in conference play, a stark difference compared to his 2.11 ERA against non-conference opponents.
A week later, against LSU, Sproat managed just 2.1 frames and allowed six runs, five of them earned. The previously dependable, hard-throwing righty walked three batters in as many innings and allowed the Crimson Tide to plate four runs. The 6-foot-3 Florida sophomore dealt 21 ? innings and allowed just five earned runs.īut, when the Team USA alumnus’ first SEC start rolled around on March 19 against Alabama, something had changed. In his first five outings this season, Brandon Sproat was nothing short of electric.
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