At First, Schwarz Succeeds For Gators

HOOVER, Ala.—J.J. Schwarz had played 127 games in his Florida career going into Friday. In all of those games, the sophomore had either played catcher or DH.

That changed Friday against No. 2 Mississippi State. With regular first baseman Peter Alonso still sidelined by a broken hand he sustained May 13 against Vanderbilt and Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan tinkering with his lineup as the fourth-ranked Gators prepare for the start of the NCAA tournament next week, Schwarz got his first career start at first base.

All went well for Schwarz in the field, and at the plate he went 4-for-5 with a double, a triple and four RBIs, leading Florida to a 12-2 victory in an elimination game at the Southeastern Conference tournament.

“That was the first game that I’ve had to wear a hat on the field,” Schwarz said. “It was new, but all I knew was all I had to do was knock it down so pretty much block it up like a catcher.”

Florida expects Alonso to be able to play next week when regionals start, but O’Sullivan isn’t sure whether Alonso will be able to play the field or limited to DH duties. The broken bone is in his left hand, which is his glove hand.

The Gators had used Jeremy Vasquez and Christian Hicks to replace Alonso at first base. But the offense has sputtered without the Preseason All-American, who is hitting .352/.455/.581 with nine home runs. In the first six games without their cleanup hitter, the Gators scored 24 runs and went 2-4. So O’Sullivan has tinkered with the lineup the past two days, looking for the best combination with the NCAA tournament fast approaching.

O’Sullivan might have hit on something Friday, as the Gators scored 12 runs against the SEC champions. It was the most runs in a game for Florida since April 14, when it beat Arkansas, 12-8.

Mississippi State is the lone team to win a series at Florida this season. The Gators had Alonso in their lineup then, but the Bulldogs were still able to hold them to 13 runs over the three games in April.

Mississippi State coach John Cohen said Florida has a sound offensive approach as a team that enabled the Gators to be effective even without their leading hitter.

“They just don’t swing and miss a lot, and they just move the baseball and they have a very unselfish approach,” Cohen said. “Their coaches just do a great job of taking away big swings from them. They’re trying to put balls in play and pressure you from the get-go. That takes discipline. It takes being selfless. I think that’s kind of the nature of Florida and has been for a while.”

In addition to playing Schwarz at first base, O’Sullivan moved Buddy Reed to leadoff and Dalton Guthrie to the two hole, an alignment used for the first time Thursday. Freshman outfielder Danny Reyes made his fourth start of the season (and second straight), and Mike Rivera hit cleanup for just the second time this season.

After Florida collected 14 hits, its second-highest total of the season, O’Sullivan was pleased with the new-look lineup.

“I think Buddy Reed likes hitting in the leadoff spot, he has a little pep in his step,” O’Sullivan said. “In reality, we’re hitting Dalton two now, and that’s probably the best thing for him. Now he’s got a chance to move the ball a little bit more.

“It just looks pretty good right now so we’ll see.”

Florida also tinkered with its lineup late last season to great effect. Harrison Bader moved from the bottom of the lineup to the leadoff spot in the championship game of the SEC tournament, and the Gators went on a six-game winning streak that propelled them to the College World Series.

Whether this year’s changes have the same impact remains to be seen. But Florida showed Friday it can still produce runs, even without its leading hitter in the lineup.

“With Pete going down, it’s put a little more pressure on our lineup to score runs because he was so good for us the whole year,” Schwarz said. “But I think a lot of guys stepped up, today especially.”