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BRYAN BURNSRiverview High pitcher Billy Bullock will take his talent to the Gators and the Southeastern Conference he has dreamed about.
RIVERVIEW - When Riverview pitcher Billy Bullock signed a letter of intent to play baseball for the University of Florida, it was the culmination of a longtime dream to pitch in the Southeastern Conference.
Bullock, a Sharks senior, had given a verbal commitment to the Gators months in advance, but he made it official at a news conference at Riverview High School on Wednesday.
"I just fell in love with everything they had up there," said Bullock, who visited Gainesville his freshman year for camp.
During an official visit on Sept. 3 to UF, the 6-foot-6, 215-pound Bullock was a guest on the field for the Gators' opening football game against the University of Wyoming. He said the intensity from the fans, coupled with the friendly baseball coaching staff, helped make his decision an easy one.
At the Gators game, he said, "the ground literally shook."
"I always wanted to play at an SEC school," he added. "It's one of the best conferences in the country."
It was a dream that almost went unrealized. Bullock broke his floating rib pulling down too hard while pitching an 11 strikeout, one-hit gem in the opening performance of his junior year. He threw just once more the rest of that season, the most important time for impressing scouts.
"I thought that was the end of it," said Bullock, 17, who went 5-3 as a sophomore. "It was a big letdown, but it wasn't that hard to come back from."
Bullock, who also considered the University of Texas and Georgia Tech before deciding on the Gators, has fully recovered from the injury, he said. He put 4 to 5 miles per hour on his fastball, which is now in the 90s, over the past year and has command of all his pitches, something few high school pitchers are able to achieve.
"Last year, we were able to send a kid to the University of Auburn and now we've got Billy going to UF," Riverview head coach Bill Leiby said. "As a coaching staff, we're hoping to make that trip to Omaha (site of the Collegiate World Series) to go watch these guys play."
The senior hurler hasn't ruled out the possibility of turning pro out of high school if picked by a professional team in June's Major League Baseball draft. However, turning pro is not something that Bullock is too concerned with right now, he said.
"I haven't talked to my family much about it because it's still so far away," Bullock said. "It would have to be a reasonable offer for me to go pro."
Meanwhile, Bullock is hoping to wipe away memories from last year's injury-plagued season and put together a standout senior year.
"This season, I definitely want to go undefeated and be selected to the all-state team," Bullock said. "I just want to pitch and help my team win districts and then, hopefully, state."