GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we talk about the great weekend for the Florida Gators as the softball team captured the SEC tournament title, baseball clinched the SEC and track and field won the SEC.

Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre break down the softball team as they gained the number two seed in the NCAA tournament and baseball clinched the SEC.

Andrew and Nick also talk about the big recruiting weekend for the Gators as they will host the first cookout event under Dan Mullen on Saturday.

TRANSCRIPT:

Andrew:                 What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, what a weekend. The trophy case had to be expanded this weekend, my friend.

Nick:                         Yeah. They need to start building these new buildings, just to have places to keep putting trophies.

Andrew:                 The whole everything school, everyone kind of makes fun of Florida about that, but let me just run you through what happened this weekend. First of all, baseball clinches the SEC regular season title. Congrats to Sully and the boys. Softball, not only did they clinch the regular season title and win that, this weekend they won the tournament title, SEC title. Men’s tennis advanced to the Sweet 16, third year in a row for them. Gator lacrosse went to the Elite 8. Men’s and women’s track won the SEC, swept the titles. Lot of trophies coming, and possibility for a lot more trophies. Wouldn’t surprise me at all to see track and field win the NCAA Outdoor Championship after winning the NCAA Indoor Championship. Then we all know what softball and baseball are capable of. Maybe lacrosse can get over that hump.

Nick:                         Softball, I know they’ve won the regular season title four years in a row. How many years have they won the tournament as well?

Andrew:                 They’ve won the tournament four years. The last time was 2013. When Florida started off the game against Alabama over the weekend, they were down 2-0 in the game, and a lot of people said, here goes another one of those things where Walton just says screw the tournament. Walton at times has not taken the SEC Tournament seriously. I say seriously, and I don’t mean that. I guess I shouldn’t say serious. He doesn’t overdo his team to win the tournament, just because it really doesn’t mean anything. He does take it seriously. He threw Barnhill in back to back days to get her some work, because she didn’t pitch very much in the games against Missouri over the weekend, after they clinched. Then timely hitting all weekend. Amanda Lorenz had three homeruns. Crazy stats. They played Missouri in Columbia, and then the SEC Tournament was in Columbia. They had 13 homeruns in six games there. It was homerun derby out there.

Nick:                         Those poor girls were out there for like two weeks.

Andrew:                 That’s what they were saying. I guess, let’s start with softball.

Nick:                         Real quick. Softball is a little different than baseball, in terms of pitching, but Kevin O’Sullivan kind of has the same outlook. Where I want to draw the parallel, both of these programs the goal is not to win the SEC Tournament. The SEC Tournament, that’s cool. Florida’s already locked up the 1 Seed for the tournament. They really have bigger fish to fry. They set their goals higher than winning an SEC Tournament.

They won the regular season, both softball and baseball. In two weeks, or next week, when Florida plays in the SEC Tournament, it’s you’re going to set your pitching up. Brady Singer will throw the first game. He’ll throw 70 pitches, 80 pitches. Same with Jackson Kowar. You’re just setting it up so you don’t have Brady and Jackson not throwing for two weeks before you get to a regional. I think both Sully and Tim Walton use that tournament just to get their teams ready for a regional,