Bethune-Cookman had played the Florida Gators 31 times coming into Sunday’s Regional Final in Gainesville. All 31 times the Wildcats had come out on the losing end. That streak ended on Saturday with a historic 6-2 win.
“This one is even bigger for our program,” Wildcats manager Jason Beverlin said after the game. “To beat someone the caliber of Florida in a championship game to force it to the ‘if necessary game’ is huge.”
The Gators were the home team on Saturday. Florida has been to a Regional in every season since Kevin O’Sullivan took over as head coach and had swept six of those Regionals. They put sophomore Brady Singer on the mound to try and make it seven.
Singer gave up a single in the first inning but quickly erased the base runner with an inning-ending double play. He gave up a leadoff single in the second, but again, took care of the runner with a 5-4-3 double play. Then Bethune-Cookman, who had to play a game against USF at noon on Saturday before facing Florida, jumped on the Gator sophomore.
Singer plunked Kyle Corbin and Nate Sterijevski (4-4, 4 RBI) doubled down the third base line, just off the outstretched glove of Jonathan India, to score Corbin all the way from first. Singer didn’t do himself any favors on a comebacker to the mound two pitches later. His throw short hopped JJ Schwarz at first and made its way to the wall behind first base as Sterijevski came around to give Bethune-Cookman a 2-0 advantage.
Florida’s bats answered the call in their half of the second.
Mike Rivera worked a walk on five pitches to start the frame. Mark Kolozsvary singled off of the third base bag to give Florida two on and no outs and Nick Horvath loaded the bases with a single to left field. Deacon Liput, who was 0-7 with four strikeouts in the two previous Regional games, laced a single back up the middle to score Rivera and Kolozsvary. Horvath tried to make it from first to third but was gunned out by a great throw from Josten Heron in centerfield, breaking one of the cardinal rules of baseball.
“You’re not supposed to make the first out at third (base),” Kevin O’Sullivan said after the game. “So, yeah, that was a mistake.”
Singer settled down after the second inning. He stranded a runner in the third with two strikeouts to get out of that inning and stranded another in the fourth before a clean, 1-2-3 fifth frame.
Corbin and Sterijevski teamed up again in the sixth inning to re-take the lead. Danny Rodriguez led the inning off with a double. After a Austin Garcia strikeout Corbin singled to right field. Nelson Maldonado gunned Rodriguez out at home but Corbin advanced to second on the throw. Sterijevski singled through the left side to bring Corbin home and give the Wildcats a 3-2 lead.
“I think we’re finally getting to the point where they’re starting to believe that it doesn’t matter what the name on the front of the jersey says,” Beverlin said of his team. “It’s baseball. Anything can happen on any given day. They’re all 18-22 years old. They all put their pants on one leg at a time.”
Singer lasted into the eighth inning but ran out of gas as his pitch count surpassed the century mark. Singer struck out the first two batters he faced but Rodriguez reached on the second strikeout as Singer’s slider in the dirt got passed Mike Rivera. A one-out single and a walk loaded the bases and chased Singer in favor of senior Frank Rubio. Rubio got Sterijevski to hit a ground ball, but it was just out of reach for Dalton Guthrie and two runs scored. Michael Deeb hit a pinch hit double to bring Sterijevski in to score, finishing the scoring at 6-2.
“We just didn’t do enough offensively, that’s the bottom line,” said O’Sullivan.
“We’ve got a chance tomorrow to win the game and advance. It boils down to one game. Bethune deserves all the credit. They played much better tonight.”
Florida and Bethune-Cookman will play in a win-or-go home game at 4 p.m. on Monday afternoon. After the game Beverlin guessed that he had four or five pitchers who could throw Monday, but he wasn’t sure how long each would be able to go. When asked who would start for the Gators, O’Sullivan responded that he didn’t know but it would obviously be an “all hands on deck” situation with the season on the line.