No. 9 Florida Baseball Rallies in 9th to Avoid High Point Sweep
Pinch-hitter Colton Schwarz took an impossible situation and made it magical.
The Gators had lost all of their momentum, but in the ninth, the team regained its flow. Still, after being down most of the inning and a game that dragged on for about five hours — two of which were caused by a weather delay — coach Kevin O’Sullivan sent Schwarz to the plate.
Runners on all the bases. One out on the board. The winning run at third. All the components for a walk-off. Schwarz, though, just worked the count and found success with a run-scoring walk, the third consecutive in the inning, for the 12-11 win.
It was a quiet win, given the explosiveness of the offenses in the previous innings. But Schwarz’s patience provides Florida a path forward out of its worst weekend this season: breathe and focus on the next controllable thing.
“No one was trying to be the hero and hit a home run,” shortstop Brendan Lawson said. “Just guys grinding out at bats, trying to wear out the pitcher, just selfless team at-bats.”
For a few moments, it had seemed like No. 9 Florida baseball (14-3) had taken a lead into a weather delay and was going to leave Sunday’s game at Condron Family Ballpark with nothing more than an 11-9 loss. The payoff for the fans who sat through the thunder and lightning? A 6-run, fourth-inning collapse.
But, by the skin of their teeth and a lucky pitch thrown out of the strike zone, the Gators avoided being swept for the first time this season. However, that doesn’t mean Florida doesn’t have blame to shoulder. The team allowed High Point (9-7) to win, putting the Panthers in a position to succeed multiple times.
Take the fourth inning. Between lefty Eli Blair and righty Billy Barlow, Florida’s relievers saw nine batters and only recorded one out.
Desperately, the Gators turned to Ernesto Lugo-Canchola, the normal setup man. It was the right choice, no doubt. He held the Panthers to two hits, one unearned run, striking out three. But, Florida shouldn’t have to run out one of its better relievers in the fifth, especially in a game that warranted strong arms in the final four frames.
“Did not want to go to Ernie that early,” O’Sullivan said. “I felt like if we could keep it close in that situation, that maybe we would have a chance.”
Take Cole Stanford, who was behind the plate in the final game against High Point. Twice, poor throws — one recorded as a wild pitch, one recorded as a passed ball — and inabilities to block the ball put the runners on first and second. Twice, the Panthers completed a double steal. Of the four baserunners put in scoring position, all collected runs.
In the sixth, Stanford overthrew an easy toss to first to get the runner out, and the ball soared over Karson Bowen’s head. High Point’s Landen Johnson, who struck out, advanced to third. The only bright spot of Stanford’s time behind the plate was when he nabbed High Point’s shortstop Willie Ponce, who was stealing second in the second.
O’Sullivan attributed the catcher’s struggles to the workload, given AJ Malzone’s hand injury. Between Bown and Stanford, the two catchers leave Florida with less room to adapt.
“Playing the two with only two catches makes it really dicey,” O’Sullivan said. “Getting AJ back, having that third catcher kind of gives you a sigh of relief.”
Yet Stanford was far from the only Florida player to have defensive miscues.
Take three Florida infielders — Bowen, Lawson and second baseman Justin Nadeau — who each recorded errors. The Gators’ fielding percentage was .900, compared to High Point’s perfect 1.000.
Not to mention, four Panther runners were given free bases on walks and hit-by-pitches.
“They might be a little bit tired and played a team that was energetic and played their tails off,” O’Sullivan said. “We’ve got a lot of things to work on that we did not handle very well, and I don’t think we handled the adversity very well this weekend.”
But the Gators had just enough luck to get through the game. The team knocked out High Point’s starter Aiden Paul after 1 2/3 innings after Kyle Jones and Lawson hit back-to-back homers to start the innings. And, it’s not like the momentum died after the inning. Nadeau and Bowen hit home runs in the second. For the first time since Friday, the Gators had led the game. Then, the weather delay came.
“We got to change what we’re doing,” O’Sullivan said. “I don’t really have the answers yet. We’re going to talk as a staff tomorrow, but historically, we’ve not played well after rain delays.”
By the end, Florida’s hitting had been outmatched by High Point’s in all but the ninth inning. Because, in the final frame, the Gators walked their way into a win, literally, with the assistance of Lawson, who went 2-for-4 with two home runs, including one to start the ninth inning. UF hit six homers in the game.
Still, Florida’s confidence at the plate showed itself Sunday as arrogance. After hitting the home run, Nadeau celebrated as if he had walked off the game, and he seemed to have engaged words with High Point’s catcher Seojun Oh. The home plate umpire, James Ainsworth, warned the Florida dugout.
Underestimating mid-major opponents never pans out. Not when Florida faced UAB. Certainly not this series against High Point. Florida entered this weekend with the best winning streak in the NCAA and the longest series streak in the SEC. Those accolades no longer belong to the Gators. The team now finds itself in the same position it had after losing its first game to the Blazers: needing to prove again why the non-conference hype isn’t a mirage.
“[The Panthers] were really talented team, and they played well all throughout the weekend,” Lawson said. “To be able to battle back shows that resilience that we can carry on into Florida State on Tuesday.”
Florida has one more chance to reset its season before facing its first conference opponent, South Carolina, next weekend: a 6:30 p.m. Tuesday home start against No. 20 Florida State (13-2) on SEC Network+ and ESPN 98.1-FM/850-AM WRUF, WJXL 1010-AM.
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