Florida baseball open NCAA Tournament, Stillwater Regional vs Nebraska

All of Florida’s regular-season failures won’t matter if the Gators can advance to a Super Regional, and that journey begins Friday afternoon in Stillwater, Oklahoma, as the Gators face the Nebraska Cornhuskers in regional play.

Florida isn’t throwing junior two-way star Jac Caglianone just yet. Instead, Kevin O’Sullivan is going with freshman right-hander Liam Peterson to get his club to the winner’s bracket. Of course, Caglianone will still play, manning first base and sitting in the No. 3 spot of the lineup with a 1.369 on-base-plus-slugging percentage and 29 home runs.

The Gators will face Nebraska’s ace, Brett Sears, who might be the most talented pitcher in the regional pool. Getting to him at any point will be tough, so the game plan should be to work counts against a pitcher who does not walk a ton of batters.

Regional play is double elimination, so Florida gets another game no matter what happens against Nebraska. Still, a win puts UF in a much better situation than a loss does, so it will be all hands on deck. Let’s take a closer look at the matchup.

Cyndi Chambers/ Gainesville Sun

Position	Name	AVG	OBP	SLG	AB	R	H	HR	RBI
Catcher	Luke Heyman	.250	.356	.495	216	40	54	14	45
First Base	Jac Caglianone	.415	.525	.844	212	67	88	29	58
Second Base	Cade Kurland	.265	.359	.510	200	42	53	13	39
Third Base	Dale Thomas	.211	.345	.330	109	14	23	2	17
Shortstop	Colby Shelton	.256	.382	.573	211	54	54	18	45
Left Field	Tyler Shelnut	.265	.368	.539	204	37	54	13	47
Center Field	Michael Robertson	.246	.305	.362	130	22	32	2	20
Right Field	Ashton Wilson	.231	.375	.346	26	6	6	0	5
Designated Hitter	Brody Donay	.266	.345	.566	124	26	33	11	24

Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union

TEAM	PLAYER	RECORD	ERA
Florida	RHP Liam Peterson	2-4	5.83
Nebraska	Brett Sears	9-0	2.00

Liam Peterson has been excellent in the second half of the season, but playoff ball could bring back the freshman nerves that have plagued Florida’s pitching staff all year long. Peterson isn’t a nervous guy, but he hasn’t had great command all year. There’s elite swing-and-miss stuff there, but he needs another offseason to refine things and dominate the college level.

The goal is to get four innings from Peterson without giving up more than two runs. Jake Clemente, Fisher Jameson, Brandon Neely and Ryan Slater are all available out of the bullpen.

Brett Sears does not walk batters and he barely gives up…