Florida was in control for eight innings Saturday against Ole Miss and held a 2-0 lead entering the ninth inning at Condron Family Ballpark.
But Florida allowed five runs on three hits, two walks and a hit batter to both lose the game 5-2 and the series to Ole Miss (22-11, 5-7 SEC).
The No. 21 Gators (24-9, 7-5) wasted a standout performance by starting pitcher Russell Sandefer, who tossed a career-high seven shutout innings, gave up just two hits and also struck out a career-high 11 batters while walking just one.
“I thought Russ was outstanding,” Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivanvsaid. “I don’t want to take anything away from Russ, he threw the ball outstanding tonight.”
Jacob Kendall helped put Florida in the lead with a triple in the third inning before scoring on a wild pitch from Ole Miss pitcher Cade Townsend.
Florida made it a 2-0 game in the seventh on Kolt Myers’ run-scoring single.
While it had a strong pitching performance, Ole Miss had a poor batting average of .077 through seven innings. But that would change in the ninth inning of the rubber game of the series. Florida’s strong pitching performance would do a complete 180.
Relief pitcher Joshua Whritenour (2-1) ran into trouble in the ninth. He allowed a lead-off walk before Judd Utermark hit a two-run home run to tie the game.
Florida called in Ernesto Lugo-Canchola, Cooper Walls and Luke McNeille from the bullpen, but they couldn’t keep the Rebels from taking the game.
The Gators only managed a single in the bottom of the inning before closing the game on back-to-back strikeouts for a total of 10 for the game.
“Compliment Ole Miss, they took advantage of mistakes that we made tonight,” O’Sullivan said. “Bottom line, we just didn’t get it done.”
Sandefer felt passionate about his teammate Ethan Surowiec after the game. He wanted to get the win for Surowiec who transfered from Ole Miss.
“I really wanted Ethan to win a series against his old team,” Sandefer said. “Unfortunately, that did not happen.”
The Gators will look for the sweep of the Sunshine State series against No. 7 Florida State (24-7) at Dick Howser Stadium in Tallahassee at 7 p.m. Tuesday (ESPN 2, 98.1-FM/850-AM WRUF).
“Talk is cheap, and you have to go out there and do it,” Sandefer said of the FSU matchup.
