Colleges

Youth may determine baseball team's fate

By ANTONYA ENGLISH
Published February 11, 2005

GAINESVILLE - The Florida baseball team is scheduled to open the season today with six position starters and eight pitchers returning from last year's super-region final team. But with a large number of underclassmen, advancing to a school-record sixth straight NCAA region appearance will be challenging.

"We have four seniors, and we place an awful lot of responsibility on our seniors," coach Pat McMahon said. "They are outstanding young men, they are class young men and we put a lot of expectations on their leadership. A club takes on a personality, and I'm anxious to see how these guys respond and continue to play because in essence for almost 47 percent of our roster, it will be the first time they will wear a Gator uniform against outside competition. That's a lot of new faces."

Dunnellon's Tommy Boss will be on the mound today when Florida hosts Charleston Southern at 6:30 in McKethan Stadium. Saturday's game is at 2 p.m., and the series concludes at 1 p.m. Sunday.

Boss, a senior, had 17 appearances, including 10 starts, with a 4.24 ERA last season. He and senior Connor Falkenbach will be relied on heavily as the Gators try to fill the void left by SEC player of the year Justin Hoyman.

Florida opens the season with at least one thing in its favor: the schedule. The Gators play 25 of their first 28 games at home.

Former Armwood standout Brandon McArthur returns after missing last season recovering from a severe head injury, received after he was attacked outside a Gainesville bar.

"Brandon's doing well," McMahon said. "He continues to work hard, he continues to make improvements. There's a good chance he'll see a lot of time at third base. He can play the middle infield positions and also leftfield. I think he makes strides every day. He had never experienced college baseball before and he's a redshirt freshman, but what's been a benefit is he played a pretty intense summer collegiate schedule, so that helped him gain some experience from fall until now."

New football coach Urban Meyer will join the opening day festivities. Meyer, a 13th-round pick in the 1982 major-league draft who spent two years in the Braves organization, will throw out the first pitch.

MOVING IN: On the heels of winning last weekend's Clearwater Invitational, the softball team moved into the national rankings at No. 19 in the espn.com/USA Softball poll. It is its first ranking of the season.

The Gators were 5-0 last weekend, including a win over then-No. 4 Oklahoma. Florida (7-0) hosts the GRU Classic this weekend.

MOSS MAY RETURN: Junior forward/center Adrian Moss might return next week. Moss has been sidelined since the Jan. 12 Auburn game with disc problems in his back. Coach Billy Donovan said Moss will not play in Saturday's game at Tennessee but could be at practice Monday.

"Right now, he's got to see the doctor again, but we feel pretty positive he's going to be able to come back before the year is out," Donovan said. "We're hopeful that we can get him into practice on Monday. We'll see how his back's doing, then we'll go from there to see if the pain resurfaces and it gets inflamed. If it does, then we're going to be set back again."

Moss missed two games in late December, then returned for the FSU game and the first two conference games but struggled with pain.

"Right now he's feeling good, he's done some things noncontact-wise, he's coming in for individual workouts, he's doing everything that is required of him except anything physical with his contact. That's going to be the biggest dilemma because that's where his problems constantly occur. He was at a point like this several weeks ago where he could run, but the minute banging starts that's when the problem occurred. So we'll have to find out more, but he's going to probably be cleared, hopefully to practice Monday."

RECRUITING HONORS: Assistant football coach Doc Holliday was named one of rivals.com's Top 25 recruiters for 2005. Holliday, who became a two-time selection, helped the Gators land rivals' 14th-ranked recruiting class after joining the staff Dec. 16.

For those eager for more football, take heart. Spring practice begins March 16.

Antonya English covers Florida athletics. She can be reached at 813 226-3389 or english@sptimes.com

[Last modified February 11, 2005, 00:52:18]