Previewing Florida baseball’s weekend series at Oklahoma

Florida baseball is looking to snap its SEC series losing streak this weekend, but the Gators will have to do it on the road against the Oklahoma Sooners.

The Gators and Sooners are tied for fifth in the SEC standings with the Auburn Tigers at 10-8. With only a couple of weeks left in the regular season, this series matters a ton for the Orange and Blue.

Aidan King has been the only reliable starter for Florida over the past two weekend series, with Liam Peterrson and Russell Sandefer struggling against Auburn and Texas A&M. The offense has also struggled, unless King is on the mound. A complete three-game performance is required for the Gators to come out on top this weekend.

Oklahoma has some good arms and bats, but the team has enough holes to execute a game plan against and limit damage. Here’s everything you need to know heading into the series.

Projected Starting Lineup: Florida Gators

Probable Starters: Game 1 – Friday (7:30 p.m. ET)

NOTES: Aidan King is the only sure part of Florida’s rotation. He wins every week, and there’s an obvious energy shift on offense when he’s pitching. It’s a full team effort and usually ends in a Gators win. He continues to go deeper into games, making it through eight innings last week. At this point in the year, it’s hard to expect anything other than complete dominance from him.

Kadyn Leon is making his second start of the year as Oklahoma switches its rotation up a bit this weekend. Leon’s lone start of the season came on April 11 against Vanderbilt. He went three innings and allowed two earned runs on no hits and two walks. Leon’s numbers are solid, but he’s very much a bullpen arm that’s used to throwing 30 pitches or less in any given outing. Opponents are hitting just .132 against him, but his walk rate is slightly elevated (15.6%) with 15 over 23 1/3 innings.

Leon is only 6-foot, which is small for a pitcher, but he has a fastball that touches the mid 90s and a low-to-mid-80s slider.

Probable Starters: Game 2 – Saturday (7 p.m. ET)

NOTES: Liam Peterson has figured out the walk issue, but now he’s getting hit consistently by SEC teams. Auburn put up four (one earned) on seven hits two weeks ago, and Texas A&M scored five (all earned) on seven hits last week. His strikeout numbers are down, and he’s usually only getting through the fifth inning. There’s greatness in there somewhere, but Peterson hasn’t tapped into it much this year.

Cameron Johnson is Oklahoma’s ace, but the Sooners are throwing him Saturday instead of Friday. The prevailing logic is that Johnson gives Oklahoma a better chance to win on Saturday, facing Peterson instead of King. Johnson has some command issues and has walked three or more batters in seven of his 11 starts this year. Conference play has been even tougher on him with seven walks against Texas A&M, six at LSU, four at Texas and Vanderbilt and five at Auburn.

Patience is the name of the game here for Florida, but Johnson has this odd ability to work out of his self-inflicted jams. The Gators must hit with runners in scoring position to take this win. The 6-foot-6-inch left-hander has a 93-96 mph fastball that can top out around 97. He pairs it with a plus changeup that comes in between 84-88 mph. Johnson also uses a 78-81 mph slider that draws a 60% whiff rate. He’s a groundball pitcher (60.6%) who rarely gives up the big fly. His 62 strikeouts over 47 2/3 innings are elite, too.

Probable Starters: Game 3 – Sunday (3 p.m. ET)

NOTES: Russell Sandefer went five innings last week, but he wasn’t at his best. The Aggies score three runs on eight hits and a walk, and he’s struck out a combined seven batters over his last three outings after fanning 11 against Ole Miss. Guys are figuring him out, but it’s still enough to win games. Unfortunately, the offense doesn’t pick him up at all whenever he starts.

Cord Rager is a 6-foot-6-inch, 237-pound lefty from a town with a population under 1,000. He’s still developing, but his low-90s fastball, low-80s slider and mid-80s changeup have been effective in Year 1. He holds a 4.74 ERA with 47 strikeouts (30.7%) and 15 walks (9.8%) over 38 innings. Opposing batters are hitting just .203 off him right now. He doesn’t go too deep in games, passing 75 pitches just twice this week.

Other Players to Watch

Offense

The only Sooner with an OPS above 1.000 with more than 15 plate appearances this year is senior outfielder Trey Gambill (1.040 OPS). He leads the team with 10 RBIs and is an on-base machine with more walks (33) than strikeouts (29). He also has a knack for getting hit by the baseball with 10 hit-by-pitches.

Third baseman Camden Johnson (.938 OPS) and catcher Brendan Brock (.921 OPS) are the other two lineup regulars to watch out for. Brock and Johnson lead the team with nine and seven home runs, respectively. They each have 22 stolen bases as well.

Bullpen

With Leon in a starting role this week, Jason Bodin, Jackson Cleveland, Gavyn Jones and Xander Mercurius are the names to know out of the Sooners’ bullpen.

Mercurius is a freshman who can give starter innings following an opener. Pairing him with Leon on Friday night feels likely. He went five innings against LSU and six against Alabama. His fastball runs up to 97 mph, his slider is in the low-90s with a good whiff rate and his changeup is also in the low-80s with an even better whiff rate. There’s a lot of upside to this arm, but he’s still young.

Jones is the left-handed specialist, but his ERA is elevated at 7.13 and he’s struck out just 18 to 11 walks over 17 2/3 innings. He has a 90-93 mph fastball with arm-side run, a mid-80s slider and a mid-80s changeup. Cleveland has the second-most appearances on the roster with 17, behind Leon’s 18. His 4.68 ERA and .255 batting average against suggest some vulnerability, but he doesn’t walk a ton of batters (7.3%) and has six saves on the year.

Bodin has a fastball that averaged 94 mph last season and touched 97 mph alongside a high-80s changeup and a mid-80s slider. He’s an extreme ground ball guy, typically, but opposing batters are getting the ball in the air more consistently this year.

SEC Availability Report

• Florida: P Jackson Barberi (OUT), OF Cash Strayer (OUT), C AJ Malzone (OUT), P Luke McNeillie (QUESTIONABLE)
• Texas A&M: P Brisco Smith (OUT)

Series History

Notes: The three prior meetings between Florida and Oklahoma all took place at the 2022 Gainesville Regional (L 9-4, W 7-2, L 5-4).

Follow the Action

FRIDAY (7:30 p.m. ET)

• Watch: SEC Network+
• Listen: ESPN 98.1FM/850AM WRUF
• Live Stream: ESPN+

SATURDAY (7 p.m. ET)

• Watch: SEC Network
• Listen: ESPN 98.1FM/850AM WRUF
• Live Stream: Fubo (with free trial)

SUNDAY (3 p.m. ET)

• Watch: SEC Network+
• Listen: ESPN 98.1FM/850AM WRUF
• Live Stream: ESPN+

Broadcaster Information

TV: Chad McKee & Blake Brewster (Game 1), Tom Hart & Lance Cormier (Game 2), Toby Rowland & Blake Brewster (Game 3)

Radio: Jeff Cardozo & Steve Russell

* Watch links go directly to game feed

Follow us @GatorsWire on X, formerly known as Twitter, as well as Bluesky, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Florida Gators news, notes and opinions.

This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: Florida baseball at Oklahoma Sooners series preview