A day after having to come back from seven runs down to defeat Tennessee, the Florida baseball team found itself in a similar position on Saturday afternoon.
However, this time the comeback came up short. Florida wasn’t able to fully erase a four-run deficit and fell to the Volunteers 8-7.
The story of the season for the Gators have been allowing rebound runs. In Saturday’s game against the Vols, the Gators allowed six runs after having scored runs of their own in the previous inning.
“Bottom line is when we get momentum and score some runs, it’s the pitchers responsibility to go out there and put up a zero,” Kevin O’Sullivan said.
“It’s hard to go out there, score a couple runs and we give up runs right after that,” shortstop Brady McConnell said. “Rebound runs are terrible for us this year, it really is a shame to watch.”
Both teams used the long ball to get off to quick starts in the first inning.
The Vols struck first to jump out to a 1-0 lead. After Gator starter Jack Leftwich struck out the first two batters, Andre Lupcius came to the plate and sent a ball towering over the left field bleachers making it 1-0 Tennessee.
Florida immediately answered in the bottom half of the frame. Brady McConnell took the first pitch he saw from Vol pitcher Garrett Crochet for a ride over the right-center field wall, just to the left of the bullpen to make it 1-1. The solo blast ended up traveling 422 feet and was McConnell’s 13th homer of the season.
“I figured he would throw me a first pitch fastball, so I just got my foot down early and hit that one pretty hard,” McConnell said.
Both pitchers settled into a groove over the next two innings. Leftwich and Crochet kept both squads off the scoreboard, keeping the game knotted up at one.
It wasn’t until the fourth inning that the Gators took command of the game. Maldonado worked a walk to lead-off the frame, and Brady Smith was hit by a pitch to put runners on first and second. Dalton’s fly-out to center field allowed both runners to tag up, putting a both Maldonado and Smith in scoring position.
Kendrick Calilao gave Florida a 3-1 lead, singling into left field that brought Maldonado and Smith home. The two-run single gave Calilao his 42nd and 43rd RBI’s of the season, which leads the team.
However, much like Friday night's game, the Vols had a big inning to take the lead back. Tennessee dropped five runs in the top of the fifth inning to take a 6-3 lead.
Ricky Martinez got it started by hitting a lead-off single and came around to score on Justin Ammons base hit.
That would lead to Leftwich being pulled from the game and Ben Specht entering to relieve him. Leftwich ended the game going 4.1 innings and threw 86 pitches. He allowed three earned runs on four hits while striking out five and walking two.
“We’ve had two starts first two nights here, we went three and a third yesterday and we didn’t get through five today,” O’Sullivan said. “We’ve had to go to the bullpen before the fifth inning on both days and we’re very fortunate to be 1-1 in this series.”
Charleston put two runners on a batter later, putting a bunt down the first base line for a base hit. A wild pitch from Specht moved both runners to second and third with Lupcius at the plate.
The Tennessee slugger drove in both runners, smacking a single to left that gave him 51 RBi’s on the season.
Jordan Butler the was put on the mound in place of Specht and got out of the inning.
The Vols added a run an inning later on Ammons two-out single that brought Pete Derkay home after he drew a leadoff walk. That made it 7-3 Tennessee
Florida then, much like Friday night, started to make a comeback. It started in the sixth inning when Maldonado led the frame off with a single. Two batters later, Dalton blasted his seventh home run of the season over the left field wall, cutting the margin to 7-5.
The Gators allowed a rebound run in the seventh when Ricky Martinez’s infield single brought Soularie home and made it 8-5.
However, the Florida offense stormed back in the bottom of the inning. McConnell led off the inning by crushing his second home run of the day, this time a solo shot to left-center field that made it 8-6.
It gave McConnell 14 home runs on the season, tying the Gator single season record for home runs hit by a shortstop with Mark Ellis. Ellis set the record in 1998.
Langworthy and Maldonado followed that up with a pair of singles, putting the leading run on base. Smith then came to the plate and launched a double to right-center field. The base hit scored Langworthy but Maldonado stumbled coming around third and had to retreat to third, keeping the Gators down a run at 8-7.
That proved to be costly for Florida, who couldn’t push the tying run across the plate despite having base runners on in the eighth and ninth innings.
“We shouldn’t be in this position,” O’Sullivan said. “We should be able to pitch into the sixth inning or so this time of year. We’ve got to have better starts, it’s just that simple, we shouldn’t be putting that much pressure on our bullpen.”
Florida finished with 12 hits on the day, including five extra-base hits. McConnell went 2-5 with his two homers, improving his batting average to .367. Langworthy, Dalton, Maldonado and Calilao also had two base hits each.
The Gator will look to take the series from Tennessee on Sunday. First pitch is at 1p.m.
O’Sullivan said that Nick Pogue will more than likely get the start after pitching five scoreless innings in Tuesday’s start against South Florida.
