Florida Baseball Loses to No. 12 Ole Miss In Extra Innings

The Gator Baseball falls to 11-16 on the year after a tough 4-3 extra inning loss to number 12 Ole Miss in Gainesville on Friday night.

Ole Miss got on the board first truck the scoreboard first with a lead off double by left fielder Tanner Mathis, who later scored on a sacrifice fly from shortstop Austin Anderson. It could have been worse but Gator starting pitcher Jay Carmichael ended the inning by striking out first baseman Sikes Orvis and stranding two runners on base.

With Ole Miss still up 1-0 in the top of the fourth, the Rebels scored again after Carmichael walked right-fielder Will Jamison who stole second and then came home on a wild pitch.

Gator coach Kevin O’Sullivan says the little things are getting the best of them.

The Rebels’ Friday night starter, right-hander Bobby Wahl, held the Gators to just two hits until the fourth inning when Florida’s batters started opening up. It began with a lead off double from Justin Shafer, followed by a wild pitch that send him to third. Redshirt sophomore Zack Powers walked and Vickash Ramjit hit a sacrifice fly to score Shafer.

Connor Mitchell singled and Josh Tobias reached on a error and senior Cody Dent stepped up and hit a deep sacrifice fly to right field, sending Powers home for the tying run.

With Carmichael still on the mound in the top of the fifth inning, Rebels shortstop Austin Anderson hit a double on an 0-2 count. Catcher Stuart Turner then walked and the Gators brought junior lefty Daniel Gibson in to relieve Carmichael.  Gibson retired the next batter with a ground out, but both runners moved up.  An RBI sac fly from Sikes Orvis sent Anderson home for the go-ahead run, bringing Ole Miss up 3-2. Gibson ended the inning by striking out the Rebels designated hitter.

The next scoring action came in the bottom of the eighth inning when Taylor Gushue, Shafer, and Powers had three hits in a row to load the bases. Ramjit hit a hard grounder to score Gushue with the tying run and the game eventually went into extra innings.

Florida threatened in the bottom of the 10th when Shafer singled but after reaching third base freshman Kevin Stypulkowski was brought in to pinch hit but he struck out to end the inning and strand Shafer on third base.

Rebels designated hitter Will Allen started off the 11th inning with a double to left center. Right-fielder Will Jamison then bunted to Magliozzi who threw wildly to Powers at third attempting to get the runner and Allen scored.  It proved to be the winning run.

O’Sullivan says talks about the throwing error.

Josh Tobias walked to first in the bottom of the 11th inning.  Cody Dent’s attempted sacrifice bunt didn’t work as Tobias was thrown out at second.  Casey Turgeon and Harrison Bader made outs and the game was over.

Despite the loss O’Sullivan talks about some positives from the game.

Game two of the three game series will be Saturday with first pitch set for 1:00pm. You can tune in for live coverage on Country 103-7 The Gator at 12:55pm; junior right-hander Jonathon Crawford will start on the mound for the Gators.