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Texas had not lost an SEC game at home since March 21 until Friday, when the Florida Gators beat the No. 1 Longhorns 8-2. It was a team effort by the Gators, who were trying to bounce back from a disappointing home loss to USF on Tuesday.
Florida (34-17, 12-13 SEC) was 1-11 in the SEC after dropping the final game against Vanderbilt on April 6. Since then, the Gators are 11-2 in conference play and 15-2 overall.
These two college baseball heavyweights faced off for the first time at UFCU Disch-Falk Field after only meeting at the College World Series in Omaha, Neb. Even in front of 7, 149 screaming mostly Longhorn fans, the Gators seemed cool, calm and collected.
Coach Kevin O’Sullivan gave credit to his offense for coming out ready to go.
“Obviously [Florida] got off to a really good start offensively and scored six runs in the first,” O’Sullivan said. “I think that probably settled our nerves a little bit.”
Florida delivered a first-round TKO to the Longhorns (39-9, 19-6) with a six-run first inning. Ty Evans got the scoring started with an RBI double to right field that made it 1-0
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Evans has been a revelation since coming back from injury and his late-game heroics against Arkansas on April 27. Since that game, Evans is batting .291 with seven hits, three home runs and 10 RBIs.
“Ever since that Sunday game against Arkansas, he’s been extremely valuable to [Florida],” O’Sullivan said.
Later in the first, already up 2-0, Florida loaded the bases after back-to-back walks, which allowed Hayden Yost to hit a two-run single to make it 4-0. Florida knocked out Texas starting pitcher Ruger Riojas of the game after 0.1 innings. Riojas gave up six runs on three hits and walked four.
Justin Nadeau hit a two-run single to push the lead to 6-0. Nadeau came into this one hitless in his last three games and finished the game 2-for-4 with a double and three RBIs.
In the third inning, Yost stayed hot with a leadoff double and came around to score off a Nadeau double, which extended the lead to 7-0.
In the fourth, Evans hit his second double of the game to get into scoring position with one out. Yost drove in Evans on an RBI single that pushed the lead back to 8-1. Yost was last week’s SEC Player of the Week and went 3-for-4 with three RBIs on the night.
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The bottom of the lineup for Florida did a majority of the damage — hitters seven through nine combined to go 5-for-11 with six RBIs.
For the first time, Florida did not send usual Friday night starter Liam Peterson to the mound. Instead, it was Pierce Cappola getting the nod, in what would be a limited outing for the 6-foot-8 lefty, making Friday a bullpen game. Cappola threw well in his two innings of work — no runs, three hits and three strikeouts.
The real star of the bullpen was Billy Barlow, who went four innings in relief and gave up one run on two hits and struck out six.
“[Florida] pitching was really good; it was great to get Pierce [Cappola] back out there again, and I thought Billy Barlow was outstanding in his four innings,” O’Sullivan said.
Jackson Barberi, Luke McNeillie and Christian Rodriguez all combined to help close out the game. Barberi was the only Gators’ pitcher to not go at least an inning, but luckily for UF, it did not matter because his counterparts bailed him out.
Texas had chances to get back into this one, but unlike Florida, could never come up with the big hit to finish 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position. Florida’s ability to attack the zone and get ahead early in counts was something O’Sullivan was happy to see.
“The one stat that sticks out is we threw 72% first-pitch strikes tonight; they kept pounding the zone,” O’Sullivan said. “Not a great night to hit, the wind was swirling around and blowing in, so the ball wasn’t really carrying; you just got to throw strikes, and they did that tonight.”
Texas struck out 16 times, the most since Feb. 14 in its 4-3 opening-day loss to Louisville.
“Tonight was a really big win for us, but now we got to take our focus into tomorrow and then take our focus into Sunday,” O’Sullivan said. “[Florida] have had a tendency over the course of the year, at times to play pretty well and then have a letdown, and we can’t afford to do that.”
Game 2 is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday and air on SEC Network+ and ESPN 98.1-FM/850-AM WRUF + WJXL 1010AM. Saturday’s starting pitchers will be right-handed pitcher Liam Peterson (8-2, 4.09 ERA) for Florida and left-handed pitcher Luke Harrison (4-1, 3.25) for Texas.
