Gators swept out of SEC Tourny

It was a short appearance for the Florida Gators in the 2008 SEC baseball tournament. After losing yesterday to the Vanderbilt Commodores, UF faced #7 seed South Carolina today. The Gators jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning, and it was downhill from there. USC scored 5 runs in the 2nd inning, 5 runs in the 8th inning, and went on to win 11-3.

Florida starter Billy Bullock didn't get out of the 2nd inning, needing over 50 pitches to record 4 outs. His final line was flat out ugly. 1.1 IP, 6 hits, 5 runs (all earned), 1 BB, 2 SO's, and 57 pitches.

There were a couple of bright spots in today's blowout, however. A pair of sophmores, Matt den Dekker and Cole Figueroa, combined for 6 of the Gators 10 hits. Den Dekker, the Gator center fielder, went 3 for 4 and scored all 3 of the Gators' runs. Figueroa went 3 for 3 and drove in a run. He did, however, commit an error in the field.

The Gators finished the regular season winning 6 of their final 8 games, earrning the 3rd seed in the tournament. But after this extremely disappointing showing in the SEC, the Gators are left to wait until Monday, when the NCAA field and regional locations will be announced live on ESPN at 12:30. Hopefully they can take this feeling of bitter emptiness and use it to try to avoid a similar letdown in the NCAA's.