It took a shrewd eye for the No. 2 Florida Gators (10-2) to finish off a weekend sweep of the Columbia Lions (0-3). The Gators worked a season-high 12 walks en route to an 8-4 win on Sunday, their ninth consecutive win at home.
Jackson Kowar (3-0) earned the start for the Gators and made quick work of the Lions. He needed just six pitches to finish a clean first, 13 to retire the Lions in the second and just six more to do the same in the third. The second time around wasn’t as clean.
Julian Bury doubled to start the fourth and advanced to third after a groundout to shortstop. Kyle Bartelman singled up the middle to give the Lions a 1-0 lead. Columbia starter Ty Wiest was effectively wild. He kept the Gators off the board despite walking four over 3.2 innings of work.
Florida went into the sixth inning still trailing the Lions 1-0. The Gators had just two hits to show for their afternoon.
“It was just tough to hit. I thought we actually swung the bat pretty good. Just anything hit in the air to left or center was an out because the wind was blowing so much,” Kevin O’Sullivan said in defense of the offense Sunday. “I wasn’t disappointed in our bats. We hit some balls hard. It was just one of those days when the ball was in the air it was probably going to be an out.”
The sixth inning proved fortuitous for Florida, even with only two hits. JJ Schwarz started the inning with a walk — his third of the game. Keenan Bell singled, moving Schwarz up to third. JJ scored when Mike Rivera grounded out to shortstop, with Bell moving up to second. Nelson Maldonado, who had been slumping at the plate, laced a double into the right-center gap, plating Bell and giving Florida its first lead of the game.
“It feels really nice to get the bat going finally,” Maldonado said. “It’s relieving actually because it shows the hard work I put into the cages, it’s starting to show. I was struggling a little bit, but this weekend opened my eyes and it taught me a lot, that I’m capable of being a good hitter and just sticking with my plan.”
Three walks, a hit batter and a wild pitch later the Gators had expanded their lead to 4-1. Not your conventional breakout inning, but you take what you can get.
Columbia fought back in the seventh. A leadoff double and a home run drew the score to 4-3 before Kowar could get out of the frame but Columbia’s pitching let them down again.
Bell opened the bottom half of the frame with a double and was replaced on the bases by Deacon Liput. Rivera dropped a sacrifice bunt to move Liput to third and then the walk parade began. Maldonado walked before Christian Hicks popped out. Liput scored with Maldonado advancing to second. He moved to third on another wild pitch. Blake Reese walked; Dalton Guthrie was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Austin Langworthy walked and Jonathan India drove in two with a double. Florida scored four runs on just two hits, extending the lead to a comfortable 8-3.
Freshman Tyler Dyson came in to close out the game for the Gators in the ninth. The righty lit up the radar gun, topping out at 98 MPH and showed enough stuff and makeup to have O’Sullivan open the door for Dyson to get in the mix at closer moving forward.
“I really, really like what I’m seeing out of Tyler Dyson. He might end up being that guy at the end of the ballgame,” said O’Sullivan. “Kind of groom him and bring him along, but we’ve got to run him out there a little bit more. He’s got a great arm.”
The Gators will have a pair of weekend games against Florida Gulf Coast this weekend starting Tuesday night in Ft. Myers.