You’ve got to love when you start a season like this.

Gator baseball completed the weekend sweep of USF, taking the third game even after going to the ninth down 6-3. After a few odd plays on the part of USF to give up two runs (they were hitting and walking batters for a good part of the inning), an infield dribbler by sophomore Preston Tucker turned in to a game tying error with two outs left in the game.

After a quick rally try in the top of the tenth, UF second year man Alex Panteliodis struck out USF’s final batter, stranding their runners at the corners. Then, freshman catcher Mike Zunino came up, with two strikeouts already that day, and notched a walk off single to right field to bring home the winning run and bust out the opening weekend brooms.

And what an opening weekend it was for the young team.

Leaving the memories of last season to…well, last season, the Gator Small ball Boys came out this weekend looking even better than their #7 ranking. Playing against a USF team that is supposed to be talented enough to take the Big East, they rattled off three big wins, with big stats on both offense and defense.  Over those three games, the team outscored USF 7-0 in the first innings, a lot of it due to a starting pitcher rotation that included a freshman (Brain Johnson) and two sophomores (Tommy Toledo and Anthony DeSclafani) who have a combined 0.00 ERA so far this season. Though the freshman was the only one to come away with a win, bullpenner Alex Panteliodis was there to clean up and grab those other two W’s, a part of a phenomenal reliever and closer squad that worked hard and saw fantastic results.

As for the batters, we’ve got some players.  Helping the Gators to their third straight 3-0 start under O’Sullivan were a mix of familiar strength and fresh, raw talent.

Den Dekker went 6-13 over the three games, with multi-hit games all weekend and a hitting streak of 12 games dating back to last season (one shy of his personal record, one he’s set twice already).

Another familiar name was Josh Adams, who was a perfect 3-3 in the Friday night opener, including 4 RBIs and a double shot of home run to start his 2010 campaign. The real eye opener, though, was the play of the freshman.

Austin Maddox, one of several talented catchers playing at UF this season, went yard on the first swing of his Gator career, while Kam Washington put up a 4-7 weekend (a team high .571 batting average) of the bench.

Nolan Fontana put in some solid play at short, along with two hits and four walks, while Zunio was brought in at key moments (like the end of Sunday’s game) and often delivered in amazing fashion (like the end of Sunday’s game). Coupled with Johnson’s five scoreless innings on his pitching debut (he threw 65 pitches, 51 for strikes, becoming the first rookie southpaw to win their debut since last year’s Panteliodis win over Louisville) and you have some excitement in the air for Gator baseball lovers.

Wednesday night continues their home stand against UCF, followed by a Thursday game against Siena, then a three game stretch against LaSalle over the weekend, so come out and support them before their too hot to catch.

Go Gators…and help keep that excitement going until football starts up again, because the Gator basketball team is looking good again too after upsetting a ranked Tennessee team last night in the O'Dome.

Josh Bauer is a Columnist for GatorTailgating.com.