After sweeping SEC foe Alabama this past weekend, the Florida Gators kept their foot on the gas pedal Tuesday night against Florida A&M.
The Gators used another solid outing from Nolan Crisp and a six-run fourth inning to cruise to a 12-1 win over the Rattlers.
“I feel like we’re definitely pulling together,” Nelson Maldonado said. “We’re really a close-knit group and we figured out how to play well with each other, how to deal with certain circumstances and I feel like we’re playing really good baseball right now.
“We had a chance to play a lot of different players, get a lot of young pitchers work on the mound, so it was good in a lot of ways tonight,” head coach Kevin O’Sullivan said.
Crisp once again was dominant on the mound for the Gators. The stocky, right-handed pitcher allowed no runs and no hits in three innings of work before being relieved. The freshman has not allowed a run in the last 12 innings he’s pitched.
“Just wanted to give him three innings in there, keep his pitch count under 45 to have available for Friday night,” O’Sullivan said.
Crisp has essentially become the Tuesday starter, having gotten the nod form O’Sullivan each of the past three weeks, all resulting in Gator wins.
Offensively, Florida scored in bunches. The Gators put runners on the base paths in both the first and second inning, but were unable to capitalize.
They finally broke through in the third. Jacob Young led off the inning by putting a double into right field. After Nelson Maldonado singled to to third base and put runners on the corners, the Gators pushed their first two runs across the plate.
Kendrick Calilao hit a ground ball to shortstop where FAMU infielder Robert Robinson misplayed the hit and allowed Young to score, making it 1-0. The ball ricocheted into left-field and allowed Calilao to take second and Maldonado to take home and make it 2-0.
Florida blew the game open in the bottom of the fourth. The Gators loaded the bases after Cory Acton singled, Kris Armstrong drew a walk and Brady Smith bunted for a base hit.
The wheels then started to fall off for the Rattlers. FAMU relief pitcher threw a wild pitch that brought Acton home and made it 3-0.
Young then pick up his second-base hit of the night, knocking a single into left field to bring home Armstrong.
Back-to-back wild pitches from Wilson brought home Smith and Young, extending the Gator lead to 6-0.
Maldonado then made it 7-0, blasting his fifth home run of the season into the left-field bleachers. Calilao followed suit on the next at-bat, hitting his fourth home run of the season to left-field, making it 8-0 Gators.
David Luethje took over for Crisp in the fourth and picked up where he left off. Luethje went three strong innings, allowing only one hit and no runs while striking out three batters.
“I thought all the pitchers did a really nice job,” O’Sullivan said, “I thought Luethje was efficient, I think it was 32 pitches over three (innings).”
FAMU scored their lone run in the top of the seventh inning when Tucker Rayburn sent the first pitch he saw from Gator relief pitcher Nick Blasucci for a ride over the right field wall to make it 8-1. Blasucci would settle down, retiring the next three batters in a row.
Florida would answer with four runs of their own. The bases were loaded after Langworthy reached on an error and Acton and Armstrong both singled.
Pinch hitter Jonah Girand would then slap a two-run single into left-field, scoring both Langworthy and Acton to make it 10-1. Two more runs would score after a Jordan Butler walk that brought Armstrong home and a Calilao sacrifice-fly to center field that allowed Girand to score and make it 12-1.
Nick Pogue and Hunter McMullen pitched the eighth and ninth inning with neither pitcher allowing a run or a hit.
Florida took advantage of four FAMU errors and three wild pitches to go along with 14 total base hits on the night. This lead to three unearned runs being scored for the Gators.
Both Langworthy and Maldonado had three base hits on the night to lead the team. Calilao extended his team RBI lead to 35, driving in three in the win.
“It’s nice to see some stuff fall through for me,” Langworthy said after struggling at the plate to start the season. “Especially the little bleeding double that I got. That’s a good sign when they’re falling like that so hopefully we’ll keep it rolling into the weekend.”
Florida will hit the road this weekend, heading to Oxford, Mississippi to battle Ole Miss. The series will start on Friday with first pitch at 7:30pm.
The status for Jack Leftwich this weekend is up in the air. Leftwich has been dealing with a blister on his finger on his right hand all season and it limited him last weekend against Alabama.
“If he’s got to miss a start, he’s got to miss a start,” O’Sullivan said. “I’m hoping that’s not the case but certainly have to look at the big picture rather than one weekend.
“I don’t know how it’s going to work out, i just want to give it a couple more day before I really try to make a decision based on what Jack’s finger looks like.”
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