By Jake Mastroianni
A misconception about alligators is that they’re not very fast, but despite their short legs, they can reach up to 35 MPH on land and 20 MPH in the water.
If you think you’re going to outrun an alligator, you’re mistaken. And the same might be true for the 2025 version of the Florida Gators baseball team.
After stealing just 43 bases in all of 2024, they swiped 14 bags in their opening weekend sweep over Air Force, including nine in game two of the series.
Four different players had multiple steals on the weekend with sophomore outfielder Hayden Yost leading the way with four despite only starting in two of the three games.
After being a one-dimensional offense last season, head coach Kevin O’Sullivan and his staff are focused on changing that by being more aggressive on the bases.
This will still be an offense that relies heavily on the longball — they had six of those on the weekend as well — but it’s important they find other ways to manufacture runs.
We’ll see if this was just an early season outlier or if this becomes a big factor for the Gators' offseason all season.
Rotation Arms Look Dominant
Liam Peterson put together one of the most dominant performances of the opening weekend on Friday when he tossed 6 scoreless innings allowing just 2 hits and a walk with 11 strikeouts.
Early in the game, Peterson was consistently pumping 97-98 MPH with the fastball and later settled at around 96 MPH. He was also locating the slider down and away from righties with ease.
In game two, Jake Clemente also went 6 innings allowing 3 runs (2 earned) on 3 hits and no walks with 8 strikeouts. All 3 runs came in the third inning when he lost control for a bit after hitting the first batter. There was also a throwing error in the inning that didn’t help.
Pierce Coppola picked up right where he left on in the College World Series last year by striking out 12 batters in 5 innings and allowing just 1 hit.
Understanding that Air Force hasn’t had many practices outside and likely hasn’t seen anything close to what Florida was throwing at them, you have to be impressed with what the Gator pitching staff accomplished this weekend.
In 25 innings they allowed just 12 hits and 3 walks with 47 strikeouts.
Swing Change Pays Off Quickly for Donay
Brody Donay showed his immense power potential during Florida’s postseason run last year when he smashed 2 home runs against Kentucky in the College World Series.
His quick hands and ability to drive the baseball a long way have never been an issue, but there have been some swing-and-miss concerns holding him back.
In the offseason, they worked to widen his stance and keep his lower half still, which should allow him to stay on the ball longer and let his strong upper half and elite bat speed go to work.
He has to be happy with the early results as he homered in all three games and was 7-10 in total with 2 doubles. One of his home runs was a majestic shot high off the batter’s eye in straightaway center. That came after he just missed hitting a 3-run homer to center in his previous at-bat.
It’s an embarrassment of riches for O’Sullivan this year with so many option to choose from. Thirteen different players started a game this weekend.
Donay could be the big piece in the middle of it all if he’s able to be a more consistent hitter with these swing changes.
Weekend Results
7-0, W
10-4, W
11-1 (7), W
Up Next
Florida plays Jacksonville and Florida A&M in the midweek before hosting Dayton over the weekend.
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