Mark Kingston says Hurston Waldrep ‘would’ve beat anybody in the country’ in Game 2 of Super Regional

Florida starting pitcher Hurston Waldrep has been excellent all season for the Gators but his performance in Saturday’s Game 2 of the Gainesville Super Regional versus South Carolina was his best game of the season.

Waldrep pitched eight strong innings with just three hits and two walks allowed and 13 strikeouts. He held the Gamecocks scoreless as Florida won the game, 4-0, to advance to the College World Series.

“I thought Waldrep was incredible today,” South Carolina head coach Mark Kingston said after the loss. “There’s just no two ways about it. He was incredible. He would have beat anybody in the country today. He was on a mission. He was as good as I’ve seen in that situation maybe in 20 years. For a guy to pitch like that, to carry his team to Omaha, he put ’em on his back and you gotta give him credit. Disappointed that we won’t be the team going to Omaha but it wasn’t for lack of fight. We’re one of the best teams in the country. We just ran into a buzzsaw tonight.”

The 6-foot-2 right-hander is now 9-3 on the season with a 4.15 ERA, .218 batting average against and 142 strikeouts in 93.1 innings. This is his first season with the Gators after spending his first two years of college at Southern Miss.

Waldrep is the No. 20 overall prospect for the 2023 MLB Draft, according to the MLB.com. He is the second-highest draft prospect from the Gators after Wyatt Langford.

Langford, who ranks third on MLB’s list, has the potential to go first overall.

“The right-hander has a legitimate three-pitch power mix, with all three offerings having the potential to be at least above-average. He was 95-99 mph in his looks this fall and that’s carried over this spring, though he’s struggled to command the heater at times. His best secondary offering now might be his split-change, an easily plus pitch that misses an extraordinary amount of bats. His hard upper-80s slider also flashes plus and can be an out pitch,” MLB.com’s draft profile on Waldrep reads.

“While Waldrep is generally around the strike zone, there is a little effort in his up-tempo delivery, causing some inconsistencies with his command and control, which led to an uptick in his walk rate this spring. Those kinds of things can be ironed out, and his pure stuff still has him in early first-round conversations.”