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O’Gara: All eyes will be on Jac Caglianone, but Liam Peterson is Florida’s postseason X-factor

Connor O'Gara

By Connor O'Gara

Published:

Imagine being Liam Peterson.

I know you, reader of this column, cannot put yourself in the shoes of a 6-5 pitcher who can consistently throw in the mid-90s. But humor me for a second.

Imagine being Peterson and having your coach, Kevin O’Sullivan, let you know that you’re on the bump to kick off the NCAA Tournament against Nebraska on Friday. Of note? You’re at Florida, AKA the defending national runners-up and also the most-scrutinized program in the field after finishing the regular season 28-27. Also of note? You’re 18 years old and a year removed from mowing down 3A high school competition in the state of Florida.

OK, so none of us can come close to imagining what it’s like to be Peterson. He’s Florida’s X-factor for however long this postseason run lasts. If it lasts as long as the 2023 run to the College World Series finals, it’ll be because Peterson pitched beyond his years.

To his credit, that’s what he did down the stretch. It’s why he’s starting Florida’s opening game.

In Peterson’s past 5 outings, he allowed 5 earned runs and struck out 20 in 19 1/3 innings of work. That’s a 2.33 ERA and a .211 opponent batting average over that stretch. Not too shabby. Florida won his previous 3 starts, including the 6-inning gem he delivered in a win against national seed Kentucky.

That last pitch? Nasty.

Think about this. In his past 3 starts, Peterson faced No. 1 overall seed Tennessee, No. 2 seed Kentucky and No. 7 Georgia. In 15 1/3 innings pitched, he held those bats to a total of 4 earned runs with a 16-6 strikeout-walk ratio.

O’Sullivan is right to not care about the whole “he’s just a freshman” thing. Deal like that against 3 offenses that averaged at least 8 runs per game and, yeah, we’re no longer talking about Peterson’s age or the challenging start to his college career.

Now, Peterson will be tasked with cooling off a Nebraska team that might not have the star power of those SEC heavy hitters, but it most recently shook off an opening game run-rule loss by winning 5 consecutive games en route to the Big Ten Tournament title. Take that for what it is.

If Florida’s elite strength of schedule did prepare it for the postseason — it certainly helped the Gators make the NCAA Tournament field — then this is the type of matchup that should favor Peterson and the Gators. Then again, this is the NCAA Tournament. Rewarding “the best team” doesn’t happen, or at least it hasn’t happened since 1999 Miami became the last No. 1 overall seed to win it all. It’s all about getting hot at the right time.

That’s what Peterson has done. He’s a different pitcher now than he was during a stretch in which he allowed at least 4 earned runs in 6 consecutive starts before briefly moving to the bullpen.

“He’s always had a slider, but now he’s got the breaking ball going,” O’Sullivan told 247sports earlier this month. “He threw quite a few right-on-right changeups that most guys can’t do, and the other thing, he has the ability to throw the ball to both sides of the plate. He can locate fastballs in to right-handers, which in this day and age, a lot of pitchers have trouble doing that.”

Command will be important for the obvious reason. Nobody wants to go deep into the bullpen to start the NCAA Tournament. Ideally, Jac Caglianone isn’t used in Game 1. If O’Sullivan plays his cards right, the 2-way All-American will be used to try and clinch a potential Super Regional berth instead of bailing out Florida again.

Peterson will have a big say in that. All bets are off if that May momentum goes out the window and Nebraska threatens to blow it open in the early innings. Maybe that means Caglianone enters the game to try and get some swings and misses, leaving many to wonder why he didn’t get the opening start instead of Peterson. That’s worst-case scenario.

Best-case scenario for Peterson’s freshman season was to have it play out like it has. It’s not just that he earned SEC All-Freshman honors or that he’ll get to pitch in an NCAA Tournament. It’s not even that he had confidence in himself, which seems obvious given the way he attacks hitters.

Best-case scenario was Florida having the ultimate confidence in him to start the NCAA Tournament. And not like the cliché confidence you hear from a manager who has to defend a struggling pitcher. Nope. Peterson earned that trust by pitching like an ace when Florida had to have it.

On Friday, Florida has to have it from the true freshman. Imagine that.

Connor O'Gara

Connor O'Gara is the senior national columnist for Saturday Down South. He's a member of the Football Writers Association of America. After spending his entire life living in B1G country, he moved to the South in 2015.

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