Brady Singer was livid and the ESPN cameras caught most of it on Sunday afternoon. Singer, and the Florida Gators, had a right to be.
The sophomore was forced into action on Saturday after rain chased Alex Faedo from the opening game of the Gainesville Super Regional. Singer threw four innings of two-hit, shutout ball before handing it off to Michael Byrne. Byrne would blow the save, leaving Singer out of the decision. Singer had another opportunity to come back and pitch in the Super Regional, but rain forced him off the mound after two innings and a ticket to Omaha on the line.
Three hours later the Gators returned to the field. Singer left as helpless to factor into the outcome as the fans who braved the long rain delay and stayed for the rest of the game.
Kevin O’Sullivan turned the ball over to a freshman. Dyson had pitched two innings in the first game on Monday, a walk off win for Wake Forest, so he was familiar with the Demon Deacons vaunted lineup and he wasn’t impressed.
“OK,” Dyson told himself before heading out to the mound in the top of the third inning of the decisive game three. “I know how to pitch to these guys. I feel like I can do it.”
Keegan Maronpot drilled the first pitch Dyson threw into right field.
Uh oh.
“Obviously we knew we it was going to be tough to score off Singer and Faedo but we thought we’d have some chances off Dyson,” Wake Forest manager Tom Walter said.
Dyson had thrown well against Wake Forest earlier in the day and Walter’s comments weren’t meant to be disparaging. It’s true, you’d rather face a freshman at this point of the season rather than the 18th overall pick in the 2017 MLB Draft in Alex Faedo, or Brady Singer who had thrown zeros at Wake twice.
They just couldn’t figure out the freshman with a cannon for an arm.
After that single, Dyson struck out the side. Three fly outs in the fourth made it six batters sat down in a row and the conveyor belt from the Wake Forest dugout to home plate and back was just getting started.
A groundout and two more strikeouts in the sixth.
“I thought today there was a whole new monster out there,” JJ Schwarz, who caught Dyson in the first game said. “He was throwing the ball hard, getting on hitters.”
A strikeout a fly out and a weak grounder ended the seventh, 12 in a row.
“Dyson was the difference today,” Wake Forest manager Tom Walter said after the game. “He made pitch after pitch after pitch and we just couldn’t solve him.”
With one out, and after 13 consecutive outs, Gavin Sheets solved the puzzle. The junior lifted a fastball for a double into he right center gap.
No worries.
Dyson struck out Ben Breazeale, who hit three home runs in the Super Regional, and got out of the seventh when Johnny Aiello fouled out.
Dyson wasn’t supposed to pitch a career-high five innings. He wasn’t supposed to throw career-high 58 pitches in the third and final game of the Super Regional.
After the 3 hour and 14 minute rain delay forced Singer off the mound Kevin O’Sullivan hoped he would get just three innings from his freshman. Then he could mix-and-match back and forth between Nick Horvath and Frank Rubio, hopefully winding up with a lead in the eighth inning so he could hand the ball off to Alex Faedo.
Dyson was privy to O’Sullivan’s plans, he just wasn’t a fan.
“I knew that we had a plan in place to piece together the next couple innings, but I kind of just wanted to hand the ball off to Alex and let him finish it,” Dyson said. “I didn’t want to have anyone else coming in.”
And they didn’t. Dyson handed the ball off to Faedo and the junior did the rest of the legwork. Dyson earned his third win of the season; while Faedo earned his first career save. Funny to think how that played out, considering Dyson was the early favorite to win the closer role at the start of the season.
The Gators won, the team dog piled, probably more carefully than most considering the amount of injuries the Gators’ have dealt with this season and put on their “Omaha Bound” hats.
Dyson walked into his first NCAA Tournament press conference, complete with a stage, and more cameras than he’s had in his face for an interview since arriving at Florida. He handled questions sandwiched in between two juniors — Schwarz and Faedo. Each has been to Omaha every year that they’ve been at Florida. Sitting there they both knew that the guy between them was as big of a reason as any that they were returning for a third time.
Schwarz was asked about making that third return trip to Omaha. He answered. When the reporter tried to ask a question to another player Schwarz stopped him, politely, “I’m sorry, I’m not finished,” he said.
“I don’t know if I’ll have another question asked to me so, I just want to say how big Tyler Dyson’s performance was for us,” he continued.
“We wouldn’t have won today without that.”