UF baseball controls its fate

Scores from around the SEC are typically announced between innings at McKethan Stadium.

Should that happen when Florida opens a three-game series against visiting Vanderbilt tonight at 6:30 p.m., don't expect the Gators to be paying attention.

Florida enters the final three games of the regular season with control of its own destiny in the race for one of the eight spots in next week's SEC Tournament in Hoover, Ala.

A Florida (31-20, 14-13 SEC) sweep over No. 13 Vanderbilt (37-15, 15-11) would lock up an SEC berth for the Gators.

"We have to take care of our own business," Gator coach Kevin O'Sullivan said. "We don't want to look at the scoreboard to see what other teams are doing, to be quite honest. We want to take care of our own business and not worry about it."

The Gators are in a four-way tie for fourth place in the packed SEC standings. But Florida is also just one game ahead of ninth-place South Carolina (13-14).

If Florida takes two of three from the Commodores, it would likely be enough to secure an SEC berth. Should Florida lose twice or get swept, however, it would be left needing some serious help.

"It pretty much boils down to us needing to take care of business and get the series against Vanderbilt," left fielder Avery Barnes said. "Two wins pretty much assures us a spot in the SEC Tournament. It feels great knowing we have the opportunity to get into the tournament only on what we do and not having to rely on someone else."

Still, Florida isn't leaving anything to chance.

"We feel like we need to win every game," infielder Clayton Pisani said. "That's our mentality going into it. Mathematically, I don't know what it takes. But we want to come out of it with a couple wins, especially with Saturday being Senior Day. We're definitely coming in trying to win two or three games."

The Gators wasted a major opportunity to secure an SEC berth last weekend when they nearly swept Alabama. But the Gators blew a pair of late-inning leads and dropped two of three. Florida, however, bounced back Tuesday with a 12-2 win over South Florida.

"I feel good about our guys," O'Sullivan said. "We bounced back after a tough weekend."

The Gators jumped out to an early lead in the SEC standings by going 7-2 over the first three weekends. Florida has scuffled a bit since, going 7-11 over the past six weekends.

Nevertheless, Florida has been good enough to control its own fate heading into the final three games.

"That's the point we were trying to get to, is to be able to control it ourselves, and now we get to," sophomore pitcher Kyle Mullaney said. "We're going to go out there and play hard and see what happens."

It promises to be a wild weekend in ballparks all over the SEC this weekend.

"It's been a battle for everyone," O'Sullivan said. "We're not the only team that's 14-13. Everyone's got tough weekends this weekend. Everyone has got their backs to the walls and have a lot of pressure this weekend.