I recently had the opportunity to catch up with former Gator baseball player Matt Laporta and talk to him about his upcoming season with the Indians and the state of the Florida baseball program.

Q: What’s your relationship with the baseball program at Florida since you have graduated like?

(Matt) A: I have a great relationship with Coach O’Sullivan and the entire athletic department. I don’t get back as much as I would like because of my baseball schedule, but I’m always either watching or checking the scores to see how the team is doing.

Q:Talk to us about Coach O’Sullivan?

A:First off he has to do a great job with coming in and putting Florida back in the top 5 or so programs in the country. He does an amazing job recruiting and then once those players are on campus he builds them into good ball players

Q: What made you choose Florida?

A:It’s not only a great athletic school but it’s also a place where you can get a great education. My mom graduated from there so that played a big part of it as well as just the tradition of the program

Q: Florida is known as a football school how does the baseball team get treated by the fans and student body?

A: First Florida has a wonderful football program and understandably football is big in the south so it does create more attention, but the baseball program is well respected and the fans and students give us full support. Actually any sport at Florida is supported whether it be volleyball, basketball, lacrosse or whatever sport it will be supported the students just all around love Florida athletics.

Q: Describe to me the feeling of being apart of Gator Nation?

A: Its one of the best feelings just being apart of the family atmosphere is great. No Matter where you go people always recognize you as a gator. Its true once a Gator always a Gator

Q: What was the feeling like going to Omaha for the college world series and what makes it so special?

A: Its an amazing feeling just being apart of the history of the college world series. The fan atmosphere is what sets it apart as there is 25,000 screaming fans watching college baseball. The city of Omaha also puts in tons of effort to make the game so special and to make the players feel welcome. There is nothing like Omaha for the college world series

Q: Whats your goal and the teams goals for this year with the Indians?

A: Well we are a young team and we expect to keep building on last year. As a team we have to cut down on the mental and physical errors and that will help us to improve upon last year. Me as a player I feel like I just have to just keep working to get better every year.

Lastly Matt has offered to answer any questions Gator fans have for him and has welcomed us to keep in touch with him throughout the season for updates on him and the Cleveland Indians.

By: Andrew Spivey

Florida had three players listed on the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) Pro-Line Athletic Preseason All-America teams.

Sophomore Austin Maddox earned second team after being awarded as the SEC freshman of the year last season. Maddox started a total of 63 games last season in four different positions for the Gators. Maddox batted .333, had 72 RBI which was a team high and had 17 home runs.

First baseman Preston Tucker and pitcher Alex Panteliodis were selected for third team. Tucker started 50 games at third base, hit .331 with 49 RBI, 17 doubles, 11 home runs and eight stolen based. Pateliodis ended the season 11-3 with a 3.51 ERA.

(Info gathered by Rachel George from the Orlando Sentinel)

The giant whiff of air you felt last night might have been the summer storm passing through, or it might have been the Gator bats in Omaha coming up short in the second loss in three days.  In all fairness, the Gator baseball team (47-17) was brought down to earth by sloppy pitching that allowed 19 runs and 32 hits; and that was in just two CWS appearances.  What made this loss worse is that Florida lost to their in-state nemesis for the fourth time in five games this season.  Kevin O’Sullivan brings him team back to Gainesville today winners of the SEC East, another CWS appearance, but watching the CWS from TV and not in a dugout.  The Gators look toward 2011 with a young team with a great recruiting class coming for the upcoming season.  Looking forward to next baseball season,  the Gators will be returning 13 players and keeping the young pitching talent in Gainesville.

So now we look to August….57 days and counting.

To what you ask?  The football team shows up and we begin to count the days to the first game, the first tailgate party.  Are we going to see kirk Herbstreit and Lee Corso on campus this fall?  Will John Brantley break out of Tim Tebow’s shadow and lead this team to an SEC East title…. All questions that will be answered after the dog days of summer.

While the Florida Gators scored the first run of the game with a RBI single the bats were mostly silent in their 8-5 loss to Florida State on Monday night. The Gators left 10 runners on base and were out hit as well by the Seminoles.

Most fans are wondering if Florida left it’s solid pitching back in Gainesville. The Gators pitching staff gave up 32 hits over their only 2 CWS games this week and 19 runs. While the pitching was less then stellar the Gator offense was nearly as bad totally only 6 runs in 2 games.

While this is quite a disappointing end to baseball season their was much achieved and a bright future awaits. Florida returns tons of talent next year as well as another good recruiting class. Kevin O’Sullivan has give this program new life and looks as if they can compete in the NCAA’s year in and year out.

By:
Calvin McDermid

Well, this is it… either Florida or Florida State will be going home early in the 2010 College World Series at 4:30 pm today. It’s going to be a battle between both of them.

Both teams seem like they just can’t get enough of each other. This is going to be the fifth time the Gators and Seminoles have faced each other this year, but this game means a lot more.

FSU (47-19) landed up in the losers bracket after a 8-1 defeat against TCU last Saturday, while Florida was chomped 11-3 by a solid 6th seed UCLA team.

Everybody make sure to tune into the game today, it will be aired live on television on ESPN2 and may also be seen online. Just search for a live video streaming site or espn3.com has it.

The last time these two teams met during the post-season in 2008, the Seminoles put the Gators season to an end during the Tallahassee Regional. But according to Antonya English of Gator Report, the Gators have a 10-3 advantage in the NCAA tournament games against the Seminoles and has also won the last seven of the eight meetings.

Looking back at the four games played earlier this year, FSU won three of the four.

The Gators will go with freshman pitcher Hudson Randall on the hill today. Head coach Kevin O’Sullivan has a lot of confidence starting Randall today, but it’s a wise decision. Randall will be making his 17th start which is a team high, and has not lost one game in his last 10 outings. Randall also leads second on the teams in strikeouts with 68 in 94 innings. He has also kept his opponents down with an .266 batting average.

If you look back at the last time Randall pitched against the Seminoles, it wasn’t picture perfect. With this being his fourth appearance, he is 0-1 with 7.71 ERA against FSU. He has allowed 13 hits and nine runs in 9 innings.

It has been a good while since the Gators have lost consecutive games in a row, and they can’t afford it now either. Looking back in late March against Ole Miss, May 22nd against South Carolina and May 26 against LSU in the SEC tournament are the last time the Gators have recorded consecutive losses.

Antonya English caught up with Matt Den Dekker:

“We’re going to come out ready to play and put this behind us,” senior Matt den Dekker said following the UCLA loss. “We played them already four times this year, so we have an idea of what to expect. We’re going to come ready to play, come out with some intensity and get ready to go.”

Den Dekker wants it more than anyone. Matt and I had a little conversation the other day on facebook and I can just tell you this… he is wanting to bring a championship back to Gainesville, and his time is limited. I don’t see how he could sleep because I can only imagine whats going through his body right now. His current facebook status:

Matt Den Dekker: Game 2 today vs FSU at 430… win or go home!!!!

Key for today’s game:

• No pitching miscues.
• Stay ahead of FSU with the bats.
• DEFENSE (wins ball games)

Shortly after the game, Gator Sports Nation will have a post-game story published. In the meantime, take a second to visit the GSN Forum and discuss the game in the College World Series thread that is created. Florida Gator Forum