October baseball in Gainesville isn’t about postseason stakes or a race to Omaha. For the Florida Gators, it’s about shaping a roster to compete in the spring.
At 6:30 p.m. Friday, the Gators travel to Tampa to take on the USF Bulls in their first exhibition game of the fall. It is the first of five fall games to evaluate what is to come in the 2027 spring campaign.
Florida entered fall workouts having a lot of new faces on the roster — 12 freshmen, nine transfers and 17 returning players — with something to prove.
The biggest change of scenery is with the pitching staff. In the offseason, Florida hired pitching coach Rich Dorman, who previously coached at Oregon State. While at Oregon State, he coached the nation’s top pitching staff, which combined for a 3.22 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, and 6.94 hits allowed per nine innings, all three being the best of any program in the country.
Along with the new pitching coach came pitchers Trey Morris and Zach Edwards, who followed Dorman to Gainesville in the transfer portal. Edwards in his sophomore season had a 5.61 ERA over 25 ⅔ innings while Morris saw more success, tallying a 1.98 ERA over 59 innings pitched.
Aidan King, a returner, is one of the pitchers the Gators will continue to lean on. In his sophomore season he recorded a 3.21 ERA while going 8-2, earning pitcher of the year in the SEC. But the path to a championship isn’t traveled with just one ace.
In the spring only four Gators pitchers tallied and ERA below 4.0. But with the insight of a new pitching coach, the staff looks to get back to national championship caliber after a disappointment in the 2026 NCAA Gainesville Regional.
On the offensive side, the Gators are bringing back four starters in the field including third baseman Ethan Surowiec, shortstop Brendan Lawson, first baseman Landon Stripling and designated hitter Caden McDonald. All four of these players hit .285 or above, three of the four batting over .300.
There’s still plenty of competition for the other five spots in the lineup. Brady Harris, a true freshman, is the most electrifying to watch in the outfield competition with the exodus of all three outfielders. Transfer Drew Dickerson, Jaden Bastian and Cash Strayer are other names to look out for in the outfield competition.
Friday’s game (tickets info) at George M. Steinbrenner Field is the first test to see how the transfers mesh with the program, look at the decision making of new coaches on the scene and an opportunity to recognize where the Gators weaknesses remain that need to be tightened before the spring.
