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The best part of baseball is there's always tomorrow. After a four-error performance in a loss Friday night the Gators were able to get right back on the field 24 hours later.
The Florida bullpen used five pitchers Friday night so Jack Leftwich came into the game knowing he needed to go deep into the game and give the pen rest. The junior did just that, throwing six scoreless innings with seven strikeouts, while the bats came alive in a 9-0 shutout win to even the series with Jacksonville.
"He was really good tonight," Kevin O'Sullivan said of Leftwich. "He got us deep into the game which we needed because our bullpen was a little light."
The bats took an inning to get going but Josh Rivera put Florida on the board in the second with a home run, his second home run in as many at-bats. Rivera was in a 3-36 (.083) slump coming into this weekend but is 3-7 with two dingers against Jacksonville in the first two games. Rivera's bat and glove are important for Florida moving forward and heading into SEC play, so the Gators should be encouraged that he's turning the corner.
"It was great to make some hard contact after the struggles that have. been happening for me these past couple of weeks," Rivera said after the game. "I think the biggest thing was trying to feel everything out in the box after (the first at-bat Friday) I felt really good in my legs and everything felt normal, my swing felt back to where I was last year."
Leftwich continued throwing up zeroes and the offense added two more runs in the third inning on a Nathan Hickey home run.
Leftwich came back out in the seventh inning but was pulled due to cramping. He was replaced by true freshman Jordan Carrion, who threw two scoreless innings, striking out two. Carrion came in as a two-way player but wasn't really expected to factor into the bullpen rotation. Injuries to Nick Pogue and Tyler Nesbitt, plus some lingering fatigue with other bullpen arms have opened up an opportunity for Carrion and he's running with it.
"I thought Jordan Carrion was outstanding. The angle of his fastball was really good. He threw the fastball to both sides of the plate, really good breaking ball. You know, looking at the way he was throwing tonight we probably need to put him in a little more leverage situations and possibly, I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but he’s a guy we look to at the end of the game," O'Sullivan said of Carrion. "He kind of checks all the boxes. Whether that happens or not is up to him but we’ll certainly look at it. He’s got the makeup, he’s got instincts, he’s a baseball player. He throws a ton of strikes, he holds runners, and obviously, he fields his position. He does a lot of the things that you need to have from a guy at the end of the game."
The Gators put the game away in the eighth inning with five more runs, highlighted by Kirby McMullen's third home run of the week, a two-run shot to center field.
Florida will hand the ball to HUnter Barco on Sunday looking for the series win at 1:00 pm from Florida Ballpark.
