Florida Gators open baseball season with a win

The Florida Gators needed a run scored on a wild pitch in the seventh inning to avoid its first loss in a season opener since 2013, but they came away with a win over William and Mary, 5-4 on Friday night.

Junior Alex Faedo, a presumed top-10 pick in the upcoming MLB Draft earned the start. Faedo led the Southeastern Conference with 13 wins in 2016 but was off his game Friday. Faedo gave up one hit in the first before getting out of the first. He retired the first two he faced in the second inning before Brandon Raquet launched an opposite field home run, giving the Tribe an early lead. Faedo settled down and retired the four batters he faced.

Nelson Maldonado led the third inning off with a single, the first hit of the season for the Gators. Christian Hicks walked and Blake Reese, a sophomore making his first start, came to the plate to sacrifice them both over. Reese dropped a perfect bunt down the third base line and beat the throw to first to give the Gators bases loaded with no outs. After Dalton Guthrie struck out Maldonado was able to score when Michael Goldak’s throw to home took catcher Hunter Smith off the plate.

Faedo got himself into trouble again in the fourth. Faedo walked the first batter of the inning before getting two quick outs. He walked Charles Ameer to give the Tribe two runners on with two outs in the 1-1 ballgame. Raquet struck again, singling into left field to score one.

“We weren’t in great rhythm on the mound early on,” Kevin O’Sullivan said. “Alex obviously will be much, much better next week. It’s the first night.”

On the opposing side of the mound, William & Mary starter Nick Brown was throwing a gem. The senior lasted five innings on Friday, striking out four. He walked one before sitting down the next three he faced in the fourth before the Tribe’s offense went back to work.

Faedo, who was on a 75-80 pitch count for his first start, returned to the mound in the top of the fifth despite having already thrown 69 pitches. Faedo struck out Michael Goldak to start the frame. Zach Pearson laced a one-out single through the left side, followed by a strikeout and a walk. O’Sullivan pulled Faedo after 87 pitches and brought in Nick Horvath. The junior gave up a two-run single, extending the William & Mary lead to 4-1.

“I could see, not just me, but all the older guys have been through so many games like this before,” junior JJ Schwarz said after the game. “We knew how much left of the game their was. You can’t really hold your head down.”

They didn’t.

Reese and Dalton Guthrie started the fifth with back-to-back singles. Deacon Liput moved both runners into scoring position with a grounder to the pitcher but Jonathan India couldn’t produce, popping up to shortstop for the second out. That set the stage for Schwarz. The junior worked the count into his favor — 2-1 — and drove a ball into the right-center gap to score two.

“JJ’s at-bat was the big at bat of the game,” O’Sullivan said. “A couple of RBIs there with two outs. He stayed on the ball and had a really good swing.”

Horvath settled down in the sixth, retiring the Tribe in order. He gave way to Michael Byrne (1-0), who needed just nine pitches to retire the side in he seventh.

Liput drew a leadoff walk to start the bottom of the seventh and reached third on a throwing error that allowed India to advance to second. Down 4-3 the Gators knew the time was now to tie the game. Schwarz weakly grounded to the pitcher, but Nick Raquet couldn’t hold on to the ball, allowing Schwarz to reach base and Liput to tie the game. The next pitch got away from Raquet and India took off running.

“It was a tie game and I had to do something for the team,” India said.

The ball didn’t get too far away from Tribe catcher Nick Smith, who picked it up and made a beeline for India as he raced home. It was a bang-bang play at home with India sliding headfirst. He knocked the ball out of Smith’s glove to give the Gators a lead.

“I didn’t have a great night at the plate so I just had to sacrifice myself,” he said of the split decision to run. “I took a chance and it worked out.”

Byrne, who entered in the seventh dazzled. The sophomore had just one career decision coming into this appearance (a loss in the 2016 SEC Tournament Championship) but was nearly perfect on Friday night. Byrne threw three innings giving up one lone hit while striking out four. He pounded he zone (28 strikes on 38 pitches) and kept batters off balance. He also earned the win, the first of his career.

“I was feeling it tonight coming out of the bullpen,” said Byrne. “Dropping breaking balls, throwing strikes. It felt good.”

The Gators and Tribe will get back after it on Saturday afternoon at 4 pm. Sophomore Brady Singer will take the mound against Tribe lefty Bodie Sheehan.

Nick de la Torre
A South Florida native, Nick developed a passion for all things sports at a very young age. His love for baseball was solidified when he saw Al Leiter’s no-hitter for the Marlins live in May of 1996. He was able to play baseball in college but quickly realized there isn’t much of a market for short, slow outfielders that hit around the Mendoza line. Wanting to continue with sports in some capacity he studied journalism at the University of Central Florida. Nick got his first start in the business as an intern for a website covering all things related to the NFL draft before spending two seasons covering the Florida football team at Bleacher Report. That job led him to GatorCountry. When he isn’t covering Gator sports, Nick enjoys hitting way too many shots on the golf course, attempting to keep up with his favorite t.v. shows and watching the Heat, Dolphins and Marlins. Follow him on twitter @NickdelatorreGC