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Gators finish off sweep of Missouri

The No. 18 Florida Gators finished a whirlwind 24 hours with a doubleheader sweep of the Missouri Tigers. A near three-hour rain delay meant a Friday finish after midnight and inclement weather forecasted for Sunday forced the teams to play two on Saturday. The Gators' two wins on Saturday stretched their winning streak over Missouri to 15 games in a row.

Game 1 

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Just 11 hours after the series-opening win the teams were back on the field looking to win the series with Tommy Mace on the mound. The fourth-year junior retired the side in the top of the first before the train came completely off the tracks in the second.

The Tigers loaded the bases with two one-out singles and a walk. A sacrifice fly scored a run but gave Mace two outs. Missouri plated another run on a single, scored on a balk and a two run home run gave them a 5-0 lead.

Mace would settle down and the Gators would start to chip away at the Tiger lead. Jud Fabian led the bottom half of the inning with a double and would score two batters later.

Florida notched a five-run inning of its own in the bottom of the fifth. Colby Halter, Jordan Carrion, and Jacob Young all reached base to start the frame. Nathan Hickey walked to push in a run, making it 5-2. Kirby McMullen singled to make it 5-3, and Kendrick Calilao lofted a fly ball deep enough to plate another before Josh Rivera's two-run single gave Florida its first lead.

Mace came back out in the sixth inning and quickly gave up two singles before Kevin O'Sullivan turned to Jack Leftwich, who had a rough time in Knoxville last weekend. Leftwich lasted just eight pitches, all balls, against the Volunteers before leaving the game visibly frustrated.

"The Tennessee outing was my turning point I felt like," Leftwich said after the game. "After Tennessee, I had to look at myself in the mirror, how I reacted and I knew I was better than that. This is my fourth year here, that can't happen. I just got back to work and I just had to regain my confidence."

Leftwich retired all 11 batters he faced on Saturday without allowing a hit. Couple that with his bullpen appearance on Thursday against Florida State and he had a week 2-0 record with 8.0 innings pitched, no hits, no runs, nine strikeouts, and one walk.

Leftwich kept the Tigers at bay and the Gators held on to take the series with an 8-6 win.


Game 2 

With the series at hand and 14 consecutive wins, the Gators were looking to sweep with Hunter Barco on the mound and the offense spotted him a couple of runs in the second inning.

Jud Fabian led things off with a double and advanced to third on Sterlin Thompson's single to right field. Fabian scored on a wild pitch and Thompson advanced into scoring position, where Colby Halter drove him in to give the Gators a 2-0 lead. Barco gave one back to Missouri in the third but settled in and limited Missouri to just five hits over 6.1 innings of work.

Florida broke the game open with three runs in the seventh inning. Jacob Young walked and advanced to third on a Nathan Hickey single. Young scored when Kendrick Calilao singled up the middle. A pair of walks to Fabian and Sterlin Thompson scored another run and Josh Rivera knocked one more home with a single to make the score 5-1.

Missouri would score three runs over the last two innings but the Gators held on to a 6-4 advantage to take the series and complete the sweep.

"I don't know if that's ever happened since we've been here, actually, less than 24 hours," O'Sullivan said when asked if he'd ever won three games in a single day. "I think everybody's kind of tired. I'm sure Missouri is, as well, but we did just enough to win all three games. We've got some things we obviously need to improve on, but at this point in the season when you're finding ways to win even when you don't play the cleanest of games is important for your team's character and mental development."

The Gators will be on the road all next week with a Tuesday trip to Jacksonville, and then a road series at Auburn.

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