Florida baseball
The Gators celebrate after a grand slam by freshman Brendan Lawson on Saturday against Dayton at Condron Family Ballpark. [Diego Perdomo/WRUF]

Gators Baseball Weekly Roundup: Week 2 SEC Standings & More

Hunter DeLauder February 25, 2025 Baseball, College Baseball, Feature Sports News, Gators Baseball, NCAA, SEC, Uncategorized 70 Views

With the first week of college baseball officially in the books, it’s time for another addition to Gators baseball’s weekly roundup. All the ESPN WRUF Florida Gators beat writers give out their current SEC standings, plus much more.

TOP 5 SEC Rankings – Week 2 Edition

Hunter DeLauder

  1. Tennessee
  2. Texas A&M
  3. Georgia
  4. LSU
  5. Florida

Tennessee (7-0) comes rolling in at No. 1 based solely on the fact it’s been the most complete team in the nation. The starting pitching has been fantastic, with junior left-hander Liam Doyle leading the way with his 0.87 ERA. Doyle, through 10.1 innings pitched this season, already has 25 strikeouts and just one walk.

Through seven games, the Volunteers have already blasted 20 home runs and scored 98 times.

Texas A&M (5-1) remains the No. 1 in D1 Baseball’s Feb. 24 rankings, but No. 2 in Hunter’s eyes. A&M comes off a series win against Cal Poly, but dropped the last game of the series. The starting pitching of the series was lights out, with a combined 18 innings, 14 strikeouts and a 0.00 ERA.

Georgia (8-1) comes in at No. 3 following its four-game sweep of UIC over the weekend. The bullpen was dominant once again, but the offense is the story here. The Bulldogs hit 11 home runs and scored 51 runs, headlined by Ryland Zaborowski who had seven hits and 11 RBIs.

https://twitter.com/sec_d1baseball/status/1894107968326558173

LSU (7-1) comes in at No. 4 and its only knock is that it dropped a game to Omaha. Junior first baseman Jared Jones has been as good as advertised so far this season. The junior is hitting .400 with 10 hits, 2 home runs and 12 RBIs.

Florida (7-0) has started the season impressively. Between the tremendous starting pitching and the emergence of junior catcher/designated hitter Brody Donay and senior infielder Bobby Boser, who have combined for seven homers, the Gators have started significantly faster this year than last.

Jacob Fedora

  1. Tennessee
  2. Georgia
  3. Florida
  4. LSU
  5. Arkansas

The top three teams are all really good and have been putting up major numbers at the plate, hence why they’re at the top of the poll. Tennessee (+43), Georgia (+42) and Florida (+38) also lead this week’s D1 Baseball Top 25 in run differential, which shows that these teams have great pitching as well as explosive bats.

Texas A&M did not make Jacob’s top 5 because, like LSU and Arkansas (6-1), it has a loss on its record, but it also lost it star sophomore third baseman Gavin Grahovac for the season on Monday to a shoulder injury.

 

Brooke Park

  1. Tennessee
  2. Florida
  3. Georgia
  4. Texas A&M
  5. LSU

Tennessee is scoring to say the least, and for Brooke, that’s the difference. The Vols lead the SEC in runs this year, showing no signs of a title lull.

Florida is No. 2, led by Donay, who won SEC Player of the Week for his performances during the opening week, and freshman first baseman Brendan Lawson, who was just named SEC Freshman of the Week.

Although Georgia has more runs than Florida (98-74), the Bulldogs are ranked No. 3 because they have a loss, which the Gators do not have. Up next, the Aggies are in at No. 4, as they lost their most recent game 3-2 to Cal Poly, and also only have 44 runs and 51 strikeouts. Finally, LSU comes in at five. The Tigers look strong but do have a loss under their belt. Also, their offense has had inconsistent patches. In its first game of the doubleheader against Omaha, it did not have a hit until the eighth inning. With more consistency at the plate, the Tigers can move up in the rankings quickly.

Lauren McGill

  1. Tennessee
  2. LSU
  3. Texas A&M
  4. Florida
  5. Arkansas

Tennessee came into this season ready to it wasn’t slowing down, and its done exactly that. The Vols are not only No. 1 on my ranking, but also took the No. 1 spot in the USA Today Coaches Poll on Monday.

Head coach Tony Vitello’s squad is 7-0 to start the season. Its currently outscoring its opponents 98-11 through seven games, and five of those games concluded with run-rule victories.

LSU is similar to Texas A&M in that it suffered an upset loss already this season. After struggling to do anything against Omaha, the Tigers clapped back and scored 25 runs in their next two games. With bats like Jones and sophomore infielder Steven Milam, who both homered in Monday’s win against Nicholls. 

While Texas A&M did suffer its first loss of the season to Cal Poly on Sunday, it wasn’t enough to dethrone the Aggies from the No. 1 spot in D1 Baseball’s ranking. It still won the series, but will have to find someone to fill Grahovac’s spot.  While this is a tough blow to the program, the Aggies have the depth in the lineup, offensively and defensively. With players like junior outfielder Jace Laviolette, senior utility player Gavin Kash, senior infielder Kaeden Kent, senior infielder Wyatt Henseler and junior catcher Jacob Galloway, they still have a strong lineup.

Florida is one of five teams in the SEC thats still undefeated this season, and it’s no surprise why. The Gators extended their record to 7-0 and posted double-digit runs in their last six games. Of these last seven wins, four of them were run-rule victories. Thanks to strong bats like Donay, who slammed four home runs over four consecutive games, and junior infielder Cade Kurland, who had two homers just this weekend alone.

Arkansas lost to Kansas State on Friday and everyone panicked, however they still came out of the weekend 2-1. The Razorbacks have relied on junior infielder Wehiwa Aloy as he has slashed a team-leading .571/.667/1.071 with two home runs and five RBI over four games. The pitching is also a huge reason why Arkansas is in the top 5. The Razorback pitchers gave up seven earned runs and struck out 27 batters in three games. Friday starter sophomore right-hander Gabe Gaeckle only allowed two runs in five and 2/3 innings. Saturday starter, junior left-hander Zach Root had 10 strikeouts, while Sunday starter, junior right-hander Gage Wood had to leave after just three innings due to an injury, but the bullpen has enough depth to last until he returns.

Hunter DeLauder

The most surprising thing that Florida has shown this year is its depth. This is a team that legitimately could roll out seven different outfielders at any point in a game. The transfer portal additions have all been contributing too, with Boser, Lawson and junior utility player Blake Cyr all playing big roles in this lineup.

Donay emerging as a star in this lineup has also been great for Florida. The offseason adjustments he made at the plate have paid off to this point. Widening his stance to limit the pre-swing movements has allowed for a monster start to the season.

The pitching staff has been excellent to this point. Even with all the youth and inexperience that concerned many entering the season, every pitcher that has come in and performed consistently thus far. The group will face its first true test when Miami comes to town this weekend.

Jacob Fedora

The pitching staff has been incredible. Through seven games played, they have had 95 strikeouts and only allowed 13 runs. For five of the first seven games, the Gators have allowed two or fewer runs, with one of those games being a nine-inning shutout. Additionally, through seven games, the Gators pitching staff has faced 222 batters while only walking 13 (5.9%).

Another thing that has really surprised with Florida this year is its ability to play small ball. Last season UF was a team that won by hitting home runs. In 66 games, it recorded 136 home runs, but only 117 doubles (1.16 home runs per double). So far this season, Florida has just 12 home runs to its 22 doubles.

Brooke Park

Two things have surprised Brooke the most about Florida.

The pitching staff has been exceptional, with their strikeout-to-walk ratio at 95 to 13. Comparing this with D1 Baseball’s top five teams, Florida has the best ratio. Furthermore, the pitchers have been able to get out of ruts, only giving up 13 runs, with nine of them being earned.

https://twitter.com/GatorsBB/status/1893101774841450698

Offensively, the Gators have produced every game. What is most surprising is that in just seven games played, they have already had 25 stolen bases compared to the 43 total bases stolen last season.  At the plate, the Gators know how to bat. They have hit a total of 12 home runs, four of which were by Brody Donay and one was a grand slam by Lawson, the first of his collegiate career.

Lauren McGill

What surprised me most about this Gators team is the pitching depth so far. The weekend rotation of sophomore right-hander Liam Peterson on Friday, redshirt sophomore right-hander Jake Clemente on Saturday and redshirt junior left-hander Pierce Coppola on Sunday, has been strong. During Sunday’s win against Dayton, Coppola had an eight-strikeout, one-walk performance. Coppola, who’s 2-0, has recorded 20 strikeouts to two walks in his first two starts of the season.

The pitching staff as a whole has 95 strikeouts and has allowed just nine earned runs on 33 hits and 13 walks, equating to a 1.42 ERA and .166 batting average through 57 innings. This bullpen has several returning pitchers who will be essential to Florida’s pitching success throughout the season.

Jacob Fedora, Brooke Park and Lauren McGill helped contribute to this article.

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