Kevin O'Sullivan's decision to pull Tommy Mace from his traditional starting role and to insert Franco Alemán was a head scratcher.
It turns out the National Champion manager knew what he was doing.
The Gators bounced back after a weekend sweep to South Carolina with a 4-1 win over Ole Miss on Thursday night behind a solid start from Alemán and five innings of one-hit baseball out of the bullpen from Tommy Mace. The loss was Ole Miss' first conference loss of the season.
The decision to move Mace into the bullpen was one O'Sullivan says he made on the bus ride home from South Carolina. He slept on it Sunday night and informed the pitchers during the week. He was not in the mood to answer questions about it after the game.
"I think you guys are looking into it way too much. This thing was not a knee-jerk reaction and I’m not going to make it a bigger story than it is," O'Sullivan responded to a question about how Mace handled the news. "We went through this before the game and Tommy was going to do the exact same routine he always does and to be honest with you I don’t really want to talk about it and I’m not going to answer questions about Tommy’s mood or, he took it great. He’s a great teammate. That’s it.”
Alemán rose to the occasion in his first start for the Gators, retiring the side in order on just 13 pitches in the top of the first. The Gators jumped on the board first to give Alemán run support.
Jacob Young led the game off with a double and scored on Nathan Hickey's double to right center field.
Alemán allowed one unearned run in the third inning but was otherwise solid on a cold Gainesville night.
"I think everybody kind of came in looking to prove something and I thought we came out well," Jacob Young said after the game. "Franco threw amazing, we had some good swings and then Tommy came in and kind of shut the door. It was a really good feeling.”
The Gators reclaimed the lead in the fourth inning thanks in part to a couple of Ole Miss fielding gaffs.
Kirby McMullen reached base on a throwing error and advanced to second. Jordan Butler reached on another error to give the Gators runners on the corners with no outs in a 1-1 game. McMullen got picked off at third base but Butler wisely advanced to second on the throw to put himself in scoring position. Colby Halter drove him in with a single to the gap in right-center, giving Florida a 2-1 lead.
That would be all Mace needed.
Mace started on the mound in the top of the fifth, which was exactly how O'Sullivan envisioned the game going.
“That was the plan," he said after the game. "Tommy to start a clean inning and Franco to give us four, Tommy to go five and it worked out really well.”
Mace struck out two batters in a clean fifth inning. He worked around a leadoff single in the sixth to throw up another zero on the board, striking out a third batter. A leadoff walk was erased by a double play in the seventh and Mace cruised through the eighth before striking out the side in the ninth.
Florida added two insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to make the score 4-1.
The Gators will look to clinch the series Friday night at 6:30, sending Christian Scott to the mound.
