What went wrong for Florida baseball in 2021?
Perhaps none of the spring sport cancelations that came in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic were more painful for Florida fans than when baseball got the ax. UFs 2020 squad began the season 16-0  the best start in school history  and though its perfect record was blemished on March 10 with a loss to Florida State, the Gators entered SEC play as the clear top team in the nation. The end of the season came just before Florida was supposed to open conference competition with a series against Georgia. The historic run was rendered void, and it appeared UFs top two pitchers, Tommy Mace and Jack Leftwich, would be heading to professional baseball. But in a shortened MLB draft, neither was picked in the five-round event. They returned to Florida, and with almost everyone back from the squad that started 16-1, expectations were naturally high for UF. It opened the 2021 season as the clear No. 1 team, and though relief pitcher Nick Pogue (who appeared in seven games with two starts in 2020) was lost for the season before it began with Tommy John surgery, the Gators three weekend starters were back on the mound. The season didnt start with a slouch. The Miami Hurricanes came to Gainesville eager to knock off the top team in the nation, and though Florida escaped the first game with a slim victory, Leftwich and Sunday starter Hunter Barco struggled as UF dropped the next two contests and lost the opening series. Non-conference play continued to disappoint. The lack of pitching depth behind the starters was apparent in midweek games, and the Gators dropped two of them to Florida Atlantic and FSU. Relief pitching also cost the opener of a weekend series against Jacksonville. Florida entered SEC play with just a 13-5 record, though it still ranked No. 5 in the country. It swept conference bottom-feeder Texas A&M to begin the conference slate, but a road sweep at the hands of South Carolina was a considerable setback. However, the Gators would bounce back big-time the following weekend, taking two of three against then-No. 3 Ole Miss. In the Game 2 loss in that series, Leftwich allowed six runs in 3 1/3 innings. That appearance would spell the end of his run as a starter, with coach Kevin OSullivan moving Hunter Barco into the Saturday role and giving up-and-down closer Franco Alemn Sunday duties. Leftwich, meanwhile, would transition into the closer role. That seemed to work. Though Florida lost the next series to No. 4 Tennessee in Knoxville, it avoided the sweep. A revenge game in attempt No. 2 against the Seminoles after that began a six-game winning streak for UF, who swept Missouri the following weekend. The Gators took two of three against Auburn after that, but the most impressive moment of the season came a week later. No. 2 Vanderbilt came to town with a pair of first-round pitching prospects in Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter, but Florida managed to steal a series victory over the Commodores. UF took series against Kentucky and Georgia 2-1 the following two weeks, leading up to the most important series of the season. UF closed the regular season with a road trip to take on No. 1 Arkansas, and though it was swept by the Razorbacks and the scores didnt exactly show it, the team played some of its best baseball of the season that weekend. That trend would carry into the SEC Tournament in Hoover the following week. The Gators opened with a chalky win over Kentucky, but they opened the floodgates in the second game against Mississippi State, run-ruling the eventual national seed 13-1. Florida defeated Alabama to advance to the SEC Semifinals. The run ended there with a 4-0 loss to Tennessee, but for a UF team that looked like it may not even make the NCAA Tournament at points during the season, it had a lot of momentum entering the postseason. That makes the Gators collapse at the Gainesville Regional this weekend all the more puzzling. UF couldnt get enough run support in a 5-3 loss to South Florida in the opener, but with its pitching depth, nobody expected the team to bow out the way it did. Saturdays elimination game against South Alabama was rough from the start. Starter Hunter Barco was pulled after just 18 pitches, and OSullivan went for broke with the season on the line later in the game facing a 2-1 deficit, putting in Alemn, who would have started the next game with a win. The gamble did not pay off, as Alemn allowed seven earned runs. The Jaguars crossed home plate 10 times in the sixth inning, and the 19-1 loss they handed Florida tied for the second-worst in school history. In a way, theres no more fitting end for the 2021 season than Florida following its best play of the season with its worst. The team was maddeningly inconsistent in every facet of the game. OSullivan-coached teams are always elite on the defensive end, even if the hitting lags behind. This years squad had no such luxury. It led the SEC in errors with 70, which is almost unthinkable given this programs track record. Those errors, paired with a limited array of relievers behind Christian Scott, who was far and away the most consistent of the bunch with a 3.00 ERA in 26 appearances, cost Florida a number of games. But the performances of the starters didnt do the team any favors, either. Mace earned his ace title in 2021, but even he could have been better. He had a 6-2 record on the year, but he had just a 4.38 ERA across his 15 starts. Barco had some excellent performances, like his complete game in the victory over the Bulldogs in the SEC Tournament, but he also had some rough outings as he did in the opening series against Miami, taking a loss against South Carolina and forcing the team to dig its way out of a hole in Game 3 against Texas A&M. Moving Leftwich to the closing role undoubtedly improved his play, but Alemn wasnt exactly the Day 3 answer the team was looking for. Though he had his moments, he was far too inconsistent on the whole. He was just 2-4 on the season, and his 5.74 ERA was the worst among Florida starters. With pitching issues like these, the onus to win games was placed on the lineup. Luckily for UF, the 2021 squad was one of the best hitting teams OSullivan has ever had. Jacob Young and Nate Hickey had huge seasons and were two of the SECs most consistent hitters. True freshman Sterlin Thompson started 51 games in right field, and with a .301 average, all signs point to him developing into a stud. But not everything was as good as it could have been. Jud Fabian, who entered the season with first overall pick hype, could not get on base consistently. Though his good moments were really good (as 20 home runs and 46 RBIs can attest), his average was just .249 and he struck out a team-high 79 times, 25 more than anyone else on the roster. He will likely still be a first-round pick this summer, but he hurt his stock considerably. Though four players in UFs lineup averaged over .300, that wasnt enough to overcome the poor defensive play, and this season will remain one of the most disappointing in program history. Though the conclusion of this season doesnt quite match an 0-2 exit in the Gainesville Regional as the No. 2 overall seed in 2014, its close. Certainly, some of the returning talent was overhyped. Mace and Leftwich were passed on in the first five rounds last summer for a reason, and expecting the 2021 team to pick up where the 2020 one left off after an 11-month pause was probably overzealous. But some things, like the inconsistency of Fabian or the disastrous fielding, cant be explained that way. This team was one of the more talented squads OSullivan has ever had. Though in retrospect it wasnt a national championship-caliber team, it shouldnt have ended the postseason the way it did. Still, the programs future is far from bleak. Though the Gators will have to fend off an apparent bid from LSU for OSullivans coaching services, its unlikely the winningest coach in Florida history would leave for a job of (at best) slightly more prestige. Assuming OSullivan comes back, this could still be a very good team in 2022. Though Mace will likely be drafted high enough to leave, the rest of the pitching staff will likely return, including Pogue. Fabian will leave, and its possible players like Young could as well. There will be some turnover, certainly, but with a brand-new, beautiful ballpark and no limits on attendance, fan support should increase next season and the team will have a more usual offseason. There are no existential lessons to take from the 2021 season for Florida. OSullivan is one of the nations top coaches and UF one of its top programs, but even the best teams have disappointing seasons. With that being said, its hard to not look back at that 16-0 start in 2020 and wonder what could have been. Gallery PHOTOS: Highlights from Florida baseball's first two SEC Tournament rounds View 20 photos  Gallery PHOTOS: Florida baseball's third-round SEC Tournament win over Alabama View 20 photos