The Florida Gators and Wake Forest Demon Deacons will resume play of the Gainesville Super Regional on Monday at 1:04 p.m. due to an extensive rain delay during Game Two on Sunday. After nearly five innings of play, a storm that spread across the state of Florida halted the game.
The Gators were trailing the Deacons 5-4 at the time the delay began.
Florida, the away team for the day, took its biggest blow of the game in the bottom of the first inning. Starting pitcher Jackson Kowar was not bringing his best stuff on the mound, and the strong offense of Wake Forest took full advantage of the opportunity.
Leadoff batter Jonathan Pryor singled to left field to start the game, but was out at second on an attempted double play on a Jake Mueller ground ball. Second baseman Deacon Liput made a throwing error to first base on the play and advance Mueller to second.
A four pitch walk to Stuart Fairchild put runners on first and second with one out and Gavin Sheets coming to the plate. Sheets jacked a three-run homer off the scoreboard in right field to give his team an early 3-0 lead.
Ben Breazeale, the home run hitter from Game One, got ahold of one for back-to-back homers and it was suddenly 4-0, a daunting deficit for Florida’s struggling offense. The Deacons continued to threaten, but the Gators got out of the first inning down by four.
Kowar still had his struggles in the bottom of the second inning, walking two batters, but got out unscathed.
Christian Hicks led off the top of the third with a walk and Liput came up to the plate with one out. He made up for his defensive mishap in the first inning with a momentum-grabbing home run lifted to right center field. It was his first home run since opening weekend and brought the Gators within two runs of the Deacons.
Kowar was lights out in the third inning and game back out quickly for the fourth, as Wake Forest starting pitcher Connor Johnstone got the Gators in order in the top of the inning.
He gave up a Pryor single and a Fairchild double to put runners on second and third with two outs, but once again pitched his way out of a jam with a full count strikeout of Sheets.
The Gators got a rally going in the top of the fifth with a leadoff single off the pitcher’s glove and Hicks followed it up with a rocket double down the right field line. Rivera took a pitch to the shoulder to load the bases for Florida with no outs. Liput came through once again with an RBI single through the right side to make it 4-3.
With the Gators finding a rhythm off Johnstone, Wake Forest entered Chris Farish in relief. He got Saturday’s hero of the game Ryan Larson on a strikeout, but Guthrie followed him up with a sacrifice fly to center field to score Hicks for his second scored run of the game.
The Gators took a tied game to the bottom of the fifth inning with Kowar settling in on the mound and things were going Florida’s way. That was until Johnny Aiello hit a carrying line drive just over the right field fence to once again give the Deacons the lead.
Kowar came back with a strikeout, but the gave up back-to-back singles, and his day was finished. Austin Langworthy came in to pitch from left field and threw his warm up pitches as the rain began to fall. With a storm developing in the area, the game was sent into a delay for the second day in a row, but this one will have to wait to be completed.
The Gators and Deacons will return to the field tomorrow with two outs in the bottom of the fifth inning and Wake Forest leading Game Two of the Gainesville Super Regional 5-4.
A third game would be played 55 minutes after the completion of game two if necessary on Monday.