USF baseball preps for final games of regular reason

TAMPA (FOX 13) - For two straight weeks, first-year head coach Billy Mohl has the USF baseball team ranked in the top 25 of multiple polls. The Bulls aren't done yet. 

"We want to finish strong," said Mohl. "Last year, we were ranked at the same time this year, and those last eight games, we really struggled down the stretch. The rankings, they're flattering and everything, but in the end, the result for the guys is to win a championship."

Last season, the Bulls went 3-5 in their final eight games of the regular season. They were quickly ousted from both the conference and NCAA tournament.

They want to change the outcome this year and hope an almost-unheard-of eight days off will do the trick.

"You know, I've never had a weekend where we've not played," said Mohl. "Looking back, in hindsight, maybe this is what we could have used last year. Having guys fresh, giving the pitchers a little downtime, to finish strong. This is back-to-back years, we've finished our last eight games on the road. You know, this is something new to us. We're going to take full advantage of getting guys healthy, getting them rested, giving our arms some break, and hopefully going into the last eight games feeling stronger."

That long stretch starts in Gainesville, where top-ranked Florida will give the Bulls a sort of litmus test as they wrap up the season.

"It's good to get our batteries charged against them and see how we stack up against them, and you know, try to go take the rest of the series and go out and win the conference," said third baseman David Villar.

USF has won five of six conference series games played so far this year. But again, the Bulls are not done yet. They want to play deep into the postseason.

"I think we're just a really confident team," said Villar. "The weekends we had before conference, we played and felt each other out. Now we know what we are capable of as a team. We're just playing well overall. The pitching is doing well, the defense is doing really well. Everything has come together at the right time."

No. 23 USF takes on No. 1 Florida next Tuesday in Gainesville. The Bulls final eight games of the regular season are all on the road.