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How to Watch: Florida baseball vs Auburn Tigers on Sunday

Florida baseball returns home to host the Auburn Tigers on Saturday, April 1, for the second of a three-game weekend Southeastern Conference series at Condron Family Ballpark in Gainesville, Florida, and if you’re wondering how you can watch the action live, you’ve come to the right place.

The Gators got off to a strong start in non-conference play before earning a series win over the Alabama Crimson Tide at home before taking a single midweek game from the Florida State Seminoles in Tallahassee two Tuesdays ago. The Orange and Blue swept a doubleheader last weekend over the Ole Miss Rebels on the road but dropped the series opener of this weekend’s matchup with Auburn, 10-1, on Friday before bouncing back with a 12-5 win on Saturday night.

How to Watch

SUNDAY (1 p.m. EDT)

Projected Starting Pitchers

Team

Pitcher

Record

ERA

FLORIDA

LHP Jac Caglianone

3-0

3.41

AUBURN

LHP Tommy Vail

2-1

3.57

Pitcher Notes

Caglianone walked eight guys in 3 2/3 innings last weekend and has struggled over the past couple of weeks on the mound. There’s not guarantee here that Caglianone picks things back up, and this is clearly the game Auburn thinks it can win in the series.

That’s why the Tigers are throwing their typical Friday arm, Tommy Vail, on Sunday. This is a strategy many teams have used against the Gators this season, but it hasn’t always paid off. — David Rosenberg

Projected Starting Lineup

Pos.

Player Name

AVG

OBP

SLG

AB

R

H

HR

RBI

C

BT Riopelle

.309

.387

.536

97

22

30

4

31

1B

Jac Caglianone

.400

.462

.971

105

32

42

17

38

2B

Cade Kurland

.378

.470

.694

98

35

37

8

33

3B

Colby Halter

.266

.373

.500

64

19

17

3

12

SS

Josh Rivera

.402

.500

.804

97

37

39

11

39

LF

Wyatt Langford

.386

.521

.843

70

30

27

7

19

CF

Michael Robertson

.289

.455

.342

76

21

22

0

9

RF

Ty Evans

.243

.307

.417

103

20

25

3

29

DH

Tyler Shelnut

.279

.380

.574

61

15

17

4

9

 

Other Players to Watch

Grayson Belanger / Auburn Athletics

At the plate, Auburn is a pretty easy team to read. They have two power hitters, Bryson Ware and Justin Kirby. Ware is also second on the team in average at .404, but Kirby is an all-or-nothing bat with 30 strikeouts on the season. It wouldn’t be odd to see Kirby add five more to that total over this series, either.

Sophomore Ike Irish is another guy to look out for. He’s leading the team with a .416 batting average and has an OPS of 1.117. Other than that, Cole Foster is the only other Tiger batting over .305 with more than 25 at-bats.

It should be a good weekend for Gators pitching if they can navigate the tricky parts of the lineup. — Rosenberg

Series History

OVERALL

120-135-2

AT HOME

67-51

AWAY

45-81-1

NEUTRAL

8-3-1

NOTES: Florida hasn’t lost this series since 2017 when they were swept on the road. Auburn might hold the edge in the all-time series, but Florida can add cut the deficit down by three this week if all goes right. — Rosenberg

Prediction

GAME 3: Florida, 7-6

SERIES: The Gators are as hot as any team in the country right now, and Auburn is going to struggle against them this weekend. Sunday seems like the only real chance for Florida’s lineup to run into a wall, and Caglianone’s latest struggles make me think that game will be close. Not the others, though.

Florida sweeps the series, 3-0. Rosenberg

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Story originally appeared on Gators Wire