During the runup to the 2022 season, much of the discussion surrounding the Gators revolved around their 16-member freshmen class that was ranked either No. 1 or No. 2 in the country depending on which website you trust the most.
So, fittingly, the two biggest stars in Friday’s season opener against Liberty were a pair of veterans.
Third-year sophomore lefty Hunter Barco, making his first start in the ace role, carried a perfect game into the sixth inning. Sophomore right fielder Sterlin Thompson launched a pair of home runs high off of the batter’s eye in center field, including a grand slam that busted the game open.
Their two performances were more than enough to propel the Gators to a 7-2 win over the Flames before a school record crowd of 6,463.
In six innings, Barco didn’t surrender a run, gave up just one hit and struck out a career-high 11 batters. He struck out the first five batters he faced and seven of the first nine.
“I feel like it’s huge, not only for myself but for the team, to start off 1-0 and continue to build that momentum into [Saturday] and Sunday and keep on building throughout the whole season,” Barco said.
The only real trouble he ran into came in his final inning when his pitch count was being stretched a little further than what he’s done in practice to this point. He issued a one-out walk to Jake Lazzaro to give Liberty their first baserunner of the game. Nathan Keeter followed with a sharp groundball that snuck past third baseman Deric Fabian for the Flames’ first hit.
A passed ball by catcher Mac Guscette moved both of them into scoring position with two outs. Barco then ended his outing in similar fashion to the way he started it by striking out Aaron Anderson looking.
“I was really happy with that,” he said. “I knew I had two guys in scoring position, and I had to bear down and just go out there and do my job, and, to be able to look up and see the six zeroes on the board, you can’t ask for anything else.”
He certainly lived up to his billing as a consensus preseason All-American.
“College baseball is different than professional baseball because there’s no spring training,” coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “It’s like you intrasquad, you intrasquad and you intrasquad, and then, all the sudden, Feb. 18, the lights are on. I thought he handled it awesome. Getting through the first inning is certainly probably the most important to kind of set the tone, and he was awesome tonight, great.”
Meanwhile, the offense struck right away in the bottom of the first without notching a hit. Jud Fabian got hit by a pitch that bounced first with one out. Thompson followed with what looked like a routine groundball to first. However, first baseman Logan Mathieu tried to force a throw to second base to get a double play. His throw sailed over the shortstop’s head and into left field.
After a wild pitch advanced both runners into scoring position, Kendrick Calilao plated Fabian with a groundout to short.
Sophomore left fielder Wyatt Langford, making his first start, got the fireworks started in the second inning with a bomb to left center field.
The Gators then got a bit stagnant on offense over the next couple of innings until Thompson crushed a 1-0 fastball from reliever Dylan Cumming in the fifth. The ball hit near the top of the batter’s eye for a solo home run to make it 3-0.
Two innings later, Thompson stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and one out and his team clinging to a too-close-for-comfort 3-0 lead.
What happened next was like déjà vu. He smashed a 1-0 fastball from Cumming toward center field. This ball had a little more arc under it and thus wasn’t a no-doubter off of the bat, but it still deflected rather high off of the batter’s eye. That shot made the score 7-0 and pretty much sealed the outcome of the game.
“This guy was a righty that has some tail away, and I was just trying to get something over the middle of the plate and drive it up the middle and oppo, like, to stay through the ball, and the first one, it was just like a strike down the middle, and I just wanted to drive it through the middle,” Thompson said. “The second at bat, it was the same pitch basically. It was a little higher, and I knew when I saw it, and that’s kind of what I was looking for the whole AB.”
This marked Thompson’s first multi-homer game, and he also set a new career-high with five RBI. He hit just five home runs in all of 2021.
“It’s just physical maturity,” O’Sullivan said. “He’s stronger. The growth from your freshman year to your sophomore year physically is probably the biggest jump you’ll make. I’ve said it all along; I think he’s one of the best hitters in the country. He’s proven that in intrasquads.
“He’s a natural hitter, and I went up to him his last at bat and with the bases loaded, and I said, ‘Just try to stay in the middle of the field. Don’t get too big.’ He was trying to hit a ball to the outfield to try to get at least one more run in, and he ran into it. He got back to the dugout and said, ‘I stayed in the middle of the field.’”
UF third-year freshman reliever Nick Ficarrotta pitched a scoreless seventh inning before yielding a couple of runs in the eighth.
True freshman lefty Philip Abner replaced him with runners on the corners and one out and escaped the jam with a strikeout and a flyout.
Abner then gave up a hit and walked two batters to load the bases with one out in the ninth, but redshirt freshman Ryan Slater got a strikeout and a fielder’s choice to pick up the save.
This wasn’t a perfect debut for the Gators – they struck out 11 times, went just 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position and struggled to finish innings on the mound after Barco left – but it was a pretty good start to a season that has the potential to be very exciting.
“I’m pleased with the first night,” O’Sullivan said. “You never know. You look at scores tonight around the country, and some people will say, ‘That’s a weird score.’ It’s college baseball. It takes a little time to get your feet wet and kind of get into a little groove. So, to play like we did tonight against a really quality opponent, I think it’s a great start to the season.”