GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we recap the Florida Gators baseball season as it came to end in Omaha on Friday.

Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre break down the season for the Gators, plus look ahead to next year’s roster.

Andrew and Nick also talk about the latest recruiting news around the program, plus the latest football news.

TRANSCRIPT:

Andrew:                 What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, had a long break between the last podcast, a lot of things going on. We apologize for that. Should be getting back on track now with our weekly podcast. Nick, we’re just three weeks away from SEC Media Days, and this time it’s in the great city of Atlanta.

Nick:                         Atlanta is not a great city. Atlanta traffic is some of the worst in the country. They have the most annoying baseball fans, outside of New York, yourself included. I’m reminded every day by those fans that the Braves are still in first place.

Andrew:                 That’s right. Shout out to my boy, Barrett Sallee. He and I have a pact that we will be having a good time in the middle of the Battery when our Bravos reach the pinnacle of baseball. It’s coming soon.

Nick:                         I’m sorry, how many do they have? How many World Series do the Braves have?

Andrew:                 We just have one.

Nick:                         How many years have they been playing baseball in Atlanta?

Andrew:                 50-some years, I think.

Nick:                         Oh, God.

Andrew:                 It’s all right.

Nick:                         Even the Marlins have two.

Andrew:                 Yeah, but how many times have you guys finished in the well of the cellar?

Nick:                         When the Marlins make the playoffs, they win a World Series. They win a championship.

Andrew:                 So, they’ve only made the playoffs twice.

Nick:                         That’s it. Two for two.

Andrew:                 There you go. Newsflash, the Atlanta Braves are tied for the best record in the National League. That’s all that matters.

Nick:                         What’s today’s date? It’s July? That’s cool.

Andrew:                 It’s almost July. We’ll get into talking some football, some recruiting, here in a few minutes. Nick, we got to talk about the baseball team. Go out to Omaha, and finish a game short, or two games short, of making it to the College World Series finals again. Nick, I’ll say this. The beginning of the year the team was really, really good, but when JJ went down it just kind of seemed like someone stuck a needle in them and inflated the air. They just really never regained that momentum. I think what a lot of people don’t talk about is the target that’s on your back when you’re the Florida Gators, the defending National Champions. It just kind of caught up to them. Listen, Arkansas is a damn good baseball team. It just caught up to them.

Nick:                         Yeah. Listen, Arkansas can hit. Those boys can hit whoever. I think Florida, you hit the nail on the head. It’s really when JJ went down the lineup changes drastically, especially the way JJ was hitting. He was hitting .450, .435 in the 10 games before he got hurt. The thing with Florida this year was you really never had a string of everybody hitting cold at one point. So, when JJ wasn’t hitting well, India goes on a 20-game hitting streak, and Will Dalton’s hitting. When Jonathan India started to slow down, Deacon Liput, Austin Langworthy, and JJ Schwarz are hitting.

Once JJ went down it was kind of a gut punch to the team, and India wasn’t hitting .300, and Liput went down a little bit. It really was only Austin Langworthy that was hitting the ball really well during that time when JJ was down. Then, obviously,