Florida Baseball’s Fisher, Kurland Look To Keep Improving

Florida’s baseball season starts Friday with a three-game home-opening series against St. John’s.

The Gators enter the season at No. 2 in the D1Baseball Preseason Top 25. Florida is looking to avenge last year’s College World Series loss to the LSU Tigers.

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Fisher and Kurland Talk Baseball

Sophomores Cade Kurland and Cade Fisher spoke with the media ahead of the weekend series. They talked about last year’s success and the expectations for this season.

“I hold myself to a very high standard,” Fisher said. “I had some good parts of last year and also had some pretty bad parts.”

He said he needs to figure out how to stay consistent for the entire season. Kurland agreed with Fisher and added that he wants to be as prepared as he can and work as hard as possible.

“It’s a matter of getting better and better,” Kurland said.

Fisher has been named as the starting pitcher for Friday’s season-opener. The left-hander played in five out of the six College World Series games during Florida’s run last season. Fisher finished the season with a 3.10 ERA across 27 appearances en route to earning All-SEC Freshman team honors.

He said the most important thing about facing high-level SEC batters is to have confidence.

“Never getting too high, never getting too low and just kind of continuing the attack no matter who your opponent is,” he said.

Kurland spoke about when he knew he was able to compete at the collegiate level.

“Coming in as a high schooler, you don’t really know what to expect,” he said. “It’s the highest level of competition you’ve ever played.”

He said scrimmaging against Brandon Sproat and Hurston Waldrep has given him confidence. The two stars were drafted in the 2023 MLB draft and now play for the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves systems, respectively.

Kurland had a stellar first season with the Gators as a true freshman. He finished his freshman campaign slashing .297/.555/.404 with 17 home runs and 50 RBIs. He started 67 games over the course of the season for the Orange & Blue.

The Gators will open the season Friday from Condron Family Ballpark, with first pitch set for 6:30 p.m.