Florida Baseball Secures Series Win Over UAB
As the sun set in an array of purple and pink pastels, Florida baseball achieved what it had set out but failed to accomplish the night before against UAB: win ball games. Florida beat the Blazers in both games, securing the series win in the rubber match. Finally, the crowd, lining the berm and filling the seats, had a reason to cheer.
The Gators looked better on both sides of the baseball. Both starters went at least five innings. Florida’s bullpen stifled any heat from the Blazers, blanking UAB over 4 2/3 innings. In the batter’s box, the team put up a combined 17 runs and 25 hits, including five homers.
“The tone was set by our pitching,” said associate head coach Tom Slater, who led the team while Kevin O’Sullivan served his three-game suspension. “You know, we just played a lot of innings today, and we only walked one hitter. Aiden King was outstanding in game one, and Skyler came in behind him for that seventh inning, no walks and no errors. So tone was set on the mound in game one.”
While Florida’s recovery mirrored its preseason expectations, the series also serves as a cautionary tale. If UAB can steal a win against the Gators, so can the other teams in the SEC. The road to Omaha only gets harder from here.
Florida’s bats woke up in the first game of the doubleheader with spitting vengeance. The Gators scored more runs in the first frame than in their first game against the Blazers. The Gators clobbered UAB’s starter Braxton Shelton, who struggled through Florida’s lineup twice before escaping the inning,
Both Cade Kurland and Blake Cyr sent balls flying over the outfield fence. But the largest warning sign for the Blazers should’ve been when both Cash Strayer and Kolt Myers hit for the first time in their first career at-bats. By the time the first inning finished, Shelton had given up 10 hits and nine runs.
So when the Gators’ final batter of the inning, Ethan Surowiec, struck out swinging — after he had already sliced a double — the crowd gave Florida a hearty cheer. This was the team Gators fans expected, a far cry from the hobbling Friday night Florida performance.
The first game was over by the time Kyle Jones stepped into the box in the second. But he sliced a ball into the left-field berm, giving the Gators enough runs to end the game in a mercy rule. Jones, who suffered a season-ending shoulder injury, went 3-for-4.
“It’s awesome. I love finally getting to be out there and go help my team and not looking out from the from the dugout,” Jones said. “I’m just very thankful and very blessed that all the trainers and everybody that helped me get back out there.
Shelton’s day ended with 12 hits, 10 earned runs and one strikeout, all recorded in 20 at-bats in those two innings. Unfortunately, UAB sat through five more innings until the first of the two-game series was called. Fortunately for the children chasing home run balls on the berm, the Gators continued their quasi-batting practice. The Blazers’ righty reliever Christian Helmers gave up four hits and a run over his four innings.
But UAB couldn’t find an answer in the batter’s box either. Gators starter Aidan King blanked the Blazers, sending them one after another back into their dugout. The sophomore completed his six-inning outing with little fanfare, no walks or hits, almost as if UAB’s hitters bored him. In the bottom of the second, King walked off the mound to Florida’s dugout after his final pitch of the second inning. He only stopped once he hit the first baseline to watch Strayer catch the ball in right-center field.
King’s fastball hovered around 90 mph, sometimes creeping up into 91. The only time he struggled was after a slight slip on the mound in the first, but he dug his spikes in the dirt and steadied himself. Despite a handful of fly balls being caught in the warning track, King commanded the zone well, throwing strikes about 68% of the time, getting four whiffs.
“I knew my fastball was going to play well,” King said. “I saw it jumping a little bit, so I just trusted it.”
Redshirt freshman Schuyler Sandford, who finished the game, made a case for Florida with two strikeouts while throwing in the low-to-mid 90s. The Gators will need more than an outing in a mercy-rule to figure out where to slot Sandford in, but after the bullpen gave up three earned runs Friday night, a quiet appearance is a positive step.
Transfer from the University of Hawaii, Cooper Walls, secured the series win in a rubber match. His performance on the mound, however, was speckled with inconsistencies, finishing 5 1/3 innings, giving up one earned run, striking out four and walking one.
His fastball topped at 95 mph, but he struggled more with his off-speed pitches — a slider and a curveball — that lingered in the low-80s. On multiple occasions, the UAB batter sent the balls flying to the warning track. None of them, however, had enough power to be homers.
After a 1-2-3 first inning, Walls found himself in trouble after giving up back-to-back singles in the second. But Surowiec caught a ball sliced his direction. He then stepped on first for an unassisted double play, stranding the runner on third.
Defensively, though, Walls couldn’t be rattled. After two quick outs in the first inning, Walls fired a fastball into the zone. UAB’s JP Head sent it rolling softly into the grass between the mound and third base. A scramble ensued.
Florida’s catcher Cole Stanford and Walls raced to the ball. The righty got to it first and chucked it across his body to first to get the third out just as Head crossed over the bag. Walls and Stanford fist-bumped as the two walked to the dugout.
Yet the Gators put themselves in high-leverage scenarios that eventually led to the end of Walls’ night. Shortstop Brendan Lawson earned an error on a throw that cost the Gators a close-out at first in the fifth inning. Then, in the sixth, Florida lost a challenge on a bang-bang play at second, costing them a second out. After 79 pitches, Florida decided to pull its starter, replacing Walls with reliever Ernesto Lugo-Canchola.
Between Lugo-Canchola and fellow reliever Joshua Whritenour, the bullpen shut down any last-minute UAB chances. Both went a combined 3 2/3 innings without a run. Whritenour’s fastest pitch reached 99 miles per hour and got a double play to end the game.
“Ernie did a heck of a job coming in behind him,” Slater said. “Those were really big innings. He pitched for us right there to give us a chance to add on to our lead. And then obviously, Josh, that’s a big arm to finish out the game.”
Florida’s bats flashed hot in moments, but without the consistency of the game prior. Lawson, who went 0-2 in the first game, sent a ball 440-feet deep into Florida’s bullpen on the first pitch he saw in the first frame for a two-run homer. Then, in the eighth, Strayer homered, securing the Gators’ win.
While the Gators pushed across runs, it wasn’t without mistakes. In the bottom of the sixth inning, Colton Schwarz hit an RBI single, but his success lasted only momentarily. UAB catcher Austin Pierzynski caught Schwarz advancing to second on a single, ending any momentum.
As nonconference games continue, the Gators will travel to Stetson next for a midweek series. Florida has an even 2-2 record in its last four appearances in DeLand, though the team won its latest road matchup, 6-1. Tuesday’s 6:30 p.m. matchup will also be the second time Jones will play against his former team since transferring.
“I love getting to go back there back there,” he said with a smile. “Love everything that they did help help me through my career, but I love being able to get back to DeLand every now and then.”
Category: Baseball, College Baseball, Feature Sports News, Gators Baseball
