Florida Baseball Drops Game 2 to Auburn, 5-3
No. 20 Florida baseball’s games are never pretty. It’s a grit-fueled, trench warfare slogfest where the Gators only hope to survive their own defensive inefficiencies and bullpen woes.
In only its second loss to a ranked opponent this season, Florida dropped Friday’s game at Condron Family Ballpark to No. 13 Auburn, 5-3.
Florida’s pitching looked like it tried to juggle live artillery: uncertain, precarious and ready for a bomb to explode in their hands. Despite starter Liam Peterson holding the Tigers (26-12, 9-8 SEC) to a measly .125 batting with runners in scoring position, he still left the game with a loss ( 1-3).
“I feel really pleased with how Liam’s been the last two weeks, and he should, too. Obviously, he pitched really well, too. If we pitch like this, we’re going to be OK,” coach Kevin O’Sullivan said.
Peterson gave up his first run on a homer by right-fielder Ethin Bingaman, but the scoring onslaught didn’t come until the fourth. The second home run, this time by left fielder Mason McMcraine, revitalized the dugout as the Auburn players pounded their hands on the padded dugout fence and sprayed water from their bottles into the air.
“I make a terrible pitch, supposed to be inside. I threw a middle away, and he made me pay for it,” Peterson said.
To Peterson’s credit, the Gators (28-12, 10-7) had a chance to leave the inning with the score tied at 2-2. However, third baseman Kolt Myers lost the ball in the setting sun, and the fielding error — which could’ve been the third out — extended the inning that ended with Auburn up 4-2.
“We made a mistake in that three-run inning and couldn’t find a way to overcome that,” O’Sullivan said.
Then, in the fifth, Peterson worked himself into and out of a bases-loaded jam. By then, O’Sullivan had seen enough, and he pulled the starter. Peterson finished his 97-pitch night with seven hits, one earned run, two walks and five strikeouts. Luke McNeillie took over in the sixth, but he gave up another homer to McMcraine.
“It’s challenging [to handle the bad luck], but you got to remember, like all the hitters are working their ass off,” McNeillie said.
If Florida’s arms underwent an artillery barrage, Florida’s main advantage, shortstop Brendan Lawson, looked lost in no man’s land when he stepped into the box. He couldn’t perfect his timing and swung at pitches he should’ve taken. Even in scoring positions, Lawson came up empty-handed. Finally, he hit a single in the seventh and worked a walk in the ninth as the possible tying run.
Luckily for the sophomore, Florida’s batters combined long balls with manufactured runs to keep the game competitive. After trailing 1-0, the Gators pushed two runs onto the scoreboard in the third off Auburn’s mistakes. Hayden Yost reached first on a wild pitch after striking out. He then advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on an error by Tigers’ starter Jake Marciano. Myers also reached first on that error and scored on Ethan Surowiec’s RBI single.
Then, in the fifth with the Gators trailing by two, Florida’s Blake Cyr sent a ball into the opposing bullpen to shrink Auburn’s lead to one run at 4-3. It was Cyr’s second home run of the series and his sixth this season.
Still, it wasn’t enough to dig Florida out of the foxhole it found itself in. With the bases loaded in the ninth and trailing 5-3, the Gators hit into an unceremonious game-ending double play. Florida now needs to win a rubber-match noon game (ESPN2) Saturday to take the series.
“The good thing about it is we got a chance to win the series tomorrow, and we need Russ[ell Sandefer] to bounce back from his start from last week, and our bullpen’s fresh,” O’Sullivan said.
Category: College Baseball, Feature Sports News, Gator Sports, Gators Baseball, SEC
