Summary: GatorCountry brings you a new podcast as we look at the Florida Gators basketball team’s tough week ahead as they compete for the SEC championship.<br> Andrew Spivey and Nick de la Torre break down what the Gators must do this week, plus how they did against Mississippi State over the weekend.<br> Andrew and Nick also recap how the Gators did on the baseball and softball field this past weekend at home in Gainesville.<br> TRANSCRIPT:<br> Andrew: What’s up, Gator Country? Your man, Andrew Spivey, here with Nicholas de la Torre. Nicholas, good weekend on the diamond for the baseball team. Not so good for softball, but went 4-1, won the tournament. Just not up to standards.<br> Nick: You win the tournament, but you do get your first loss of the year. Baseball had to come back on Friday, but looked pretty dominate against a William & Mary team that was a regional team last year.<br> Andrew: I didn’t get to watch very much of it because of softball going on, but did get to catch a little bit of Sunday’s action, and it seemed like Kowar was on. It seemed like the offense was going. I know you said that JJ Schwarz did well over the weekend. Five runs, eight runs and 11 runs, you’ll take that any day of the week.<br> Nick: Yeah. The thing with JJ that I really took away from this week is that he’s really not pressing, and he’s hitting the ball where it’s pitched. JJ had hits where he’s pulling the ball, he’s taking the ball the other way, he’s going back up the middle. It looked like he was more relaxed. He kind of struggled, didn’t have a great game Sunday, but throughout the weekend, last year you saw him trying to pull everything, trying to kill some balls, and this year it’s kind of maybe a more mature approach where you’re thinking, “I’m just going to hit it where it’s pitched. Everything’s not going to be a homerun. If I get a ball low and outside that I can hit, I’m going to take it the other way, shoot it past the second baseman.”<br> Andrew: I noticed, I believe it was Saturday or Sunday where it was first and second, and he drove one to right center. That was something you didn’t see. Looked like overall the protection behind him was there. That’s something we’ll talk about here in a second with softball, having a five hole hitter is one of the biggest things in sports, to have someone protect your big hitter overall.<br> Just a quick look at the stats here. Looks like overall a lot of guys had productive weekends. Dalton Guthrie supporting a .412 batting average after the first weekend, and JJ at .400. Overall, a lot of positives. Any surprises at the box for you?<br> Nick: Nothing really surprising. I thought Alex Faedo would have a better outing on Friday. He kind of struggled to find his spots. I think Brady Singer got into a little bit of trouble too. I think those two guys will be better. Nothing really surprising. I think what we really learned this week is that this team’s going to hit.<br> I really liked the lineup to start, and I think Jonathan India is going to be the key this year. Jonathan India, your third baseman, sophomore, hitting third. That’s going to be your guy. I called his homerun on Saturday. I said, “India is going to be the first one to hit a homerun. He’s going to hit one today.” We were all taking bets on who would be the first. I think he’s going to be your key. He’s going to be a guy you need to hit probably 8-10 homeruns, and he’s going to be hitting third. Need him to hit high .300s, mid .300s. He’s capable of that. He’s taken a big step forward from a great freshman year.<br> I love one, two, three. Guthrie, Liput, India. Then you’ve got JJ hitting fourth, and you’ve got options for five. Austin Langworthy, the kid just hits. He might only be 5’10” and 170 pounds, 180 pounds. I don’t know what he’s listed at,
