BATON ROUGE, La. — Rumors of the Florida Gators’ demise were highly exaggerated.
The No. 9-ranked Florida baseball team won the final game of its series against No. 3-ranked LSU on Sunday afternoon with a 9-3 triumph that saw outstanding performances in every phase of the game.
“We needed to get back on a winning track,” Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “You never want to lose more than one in a row. You want to get back on a winning track as quickly as possible. We lost three in a row and everybody was kind of frustrated and down all of a sudden.
“I would say that this was one of the biggest wins of the year for us, to get back on a winning track and beat a good LSU team on the road and put ourselves in really good position on top of the East. That plane ride home will feel a heck of a lot better.”
The Gators’ victory left a Senior Day crowd of 9,578 fans at Alex Box Stadium disappointed by LSU’s loss.
“I’m just glad we’re heading back home and getting out of here with a win,” O’Sullivan said. “This is a tough place to play. I have a tremendous amount of respect for that team and their coaching staff. To come out of here with a win was huge for us.”
The Gators trail LSU by one game for first place in the Southeastern Conference after beginning the weekend in a tie.
“It was hot, it was senior day for (LSU), and I know they are fighting to host a Super Regional and they weren’t going to just give it to us,” O’Sullivan said. “They are well-coached and they compete. I was awfully proud of the way we responded today.”
Florida (35-17, 17-10 SEC) racked up 15 hits in the game after being held to four hits on Saturday night and six hits on Friday. The three-game losing streak started Wednesday at home in a 17-5 setback to Florida Gulf Coast University.
“We were in a three-game skid, it would have been a heck of a thing to go back home losing this last one,” O’Sullivan said. “I thought we responded really well. Now we have a chance (to win the division). We’re right where we need to be going back home.”
Florida freshman pitcher Nick Maronde (3-1) provided the start that his team needed, striking out a career-high eight batters in five innings while allowing only three hits, two runs and two walks.
“I was just trying to give us a chance to win today,” Maronde said. “It was important to get a win today. I was just trying to put the ball in play and throw strikes. I wasn’t trying to do a lot, just work ahead and stay ahead.”
LSU (38-14, 18-9) piled up 14 runs on 24 hits in the first two games of the series, making Maronde’s performance all the more impressive.
“If you can keep their score down, everybody is going to be able to stay loose,” Maronde said. “The big thing is to try to put zeroes on the board and give us a chance to score some runs first. We play a lot better when we score first.”
LSU catcher Micah Gibbs batted 2-for-3, but credited the Gators’ performance on the mound as the reason for the outcome.
“(Florida) did a really good job pitching to us,” Gibbs said. “I don’t think it was anything we did wrong.”
Florida’s offense took a 3-0 lead in the third inning after loading the bases with one out. Senior Brandon McArthur’s infield hit scored the opening run, then sophomore Jonathan Pigott’s single brought in two more runs off LSU starter Austin Ross (5-6).
“To jump out to a three-run lead in the third was important to us,” O’Sullivan said. “We only scored one run in the first 18 innings here, so to jump out and get a lead kind of got the monkey off our back. I think it calmed everybody down. We were able to use our bullpen the way we wanted to use it and use our offense the way we wanted to use it. We got the running game going a little bit and the bunt game worked well. But in order to do that, you need to jump out to a lead.”
LSU countered with a solo home run by Ryan Schimpf in the fourth, the first hit of the game allowed by Maronde.
“It helps the hitters a lot to relax when we have a lead,” Maronde said. “I went out there like it was 0-0, just trying to throw strikes and stay ahead.”
McArthur gave the Gators another run with an RBI double in the top of the fifth inning.
Maronde responded to the home run by striking out the next four LSU batters, giving him eight in the game. A pair of bloop singles and a balk put a runner in position to score on a sacrifice fly to center field by Austin Nola in the bottom of the fifth inning, cutting the UF lead to 4-2.
“I was just trying to make sure I was getting the first-pitch strikes,” Maronde said. “I didn’t get as many I as first-pitch strikes as I would have liked, but I made sure to get the next one and come back with a strike.”
Maronde’s previous eight appearance were as a relief pitcher. His last start was at Vanderbilt on April 4.
“I don’t even know when my last start was,” Maronde said. “I came out today just trying to do well and give us a chance to win.”
Maronde was chosen to start over classmate Alex Panteliodis, who also saw action in the game.
“(Maronde) threw really well,” O’Sullivan said. “He set the tempo. He’s a competitor. We could have gone with either him or (Panteliodis). I felt comfortable with either one. Maronde’s been throwing the ball really well as of late so we went with him. We told him ‘if you give us a lead through five, we have a chance to piece that thing together with our bullpen,’ and that’s exactly what we did.”
Panteliodis pitched a scoreless inning, allowing one hit, in relief of senior Patrick Keating. The UF senior allowed three hits and an unearned run while striking out two batters. Keating and junior pitcher Billy Bullock have been key components of the Florida bullpen this season and had not pitched in the first two games of the series.
“Either way (Keating and Bullock) were going to pitch today,” O’Sullivan said. “I was hoping it would be in the right role. On Friday night, we weren’t going to use them there. Last night, behind 3-0, we weren’t going to use them there either. We wanted to use them to salvage the last one, and that’s exactly what we did.”
Bullock allowed a hit, but pitched a scoreless ninth inning while striking out one batter. Tony Davis had a strikeout and allowed a walk during the sixth inning.
Florida freshman Preston Tucker scored three runs, batted 4-for-5 with two doubles and an RBI.
“The first two games, things weren’t going our way,” Tucker said. “Hits weren’t falling. They were getting hits. Coach just kept telling us that if we keep swinging the bats things will start to happen. We swung well today and it worked.”
Tucker’s RBI increased his season total to 65. Tucker is now only three shy of the UF freshman record of 68, held by Brad Wilkerson.
“I was just trying to get on base,” Tucker said. “A lot of the times I got up there, there wasn’t anybody on base so I was just trying to get on base to have the other guys drive me in.”
Tucker was one of seven UF starters to have at least one hit.
“Coach just told us to ‘keep our confidence up, we can beat these guys,’” Tucker said. “‘Go out there and keep swinging the bats and make our pitches and we’ll be alright.’”
“We have to get leads because we’re not a big home run hitting team,” O’Sullivan said. “We have to get leads. Our strength is our speed and our pitching and our defense. I really think we’ve been playing good defensively. That’s one of the things in the last month that we really haven’t talked about, but I’m really pleased with the way we’ve responded defensively, especially in the infield.”
Florida turned the only double play of the game and did not commit an error, improving to 12-2 when playing error-free baseball.
“A lot of guys contributed,” O’Sullivan said. “We had five guys go to the mound today. We used a lot of guys. Daniel Pigott played today for the first time in a while. Jonathan Pigott had a good weekend. We used a lot of guys and a lot of guys contributed. I’m sure everybody will feel good on the way home.”
Jonathan Pigott batted 2-for-5 with three RBI while junior Matt den Dekker batted 3-for-3 with three RBI and scored three runs. Senior Avery Barnes extended his hitting streak to a career-high 15 games with a single in the third inning.
“The problem was that we fell behind in the other two games,” O’Sullivan said. “We really couldn’t get anything going. I think you really have to credit their pitching. Their starting pitcher on Friday was outstanding and their pitcher yesterday was outstanding.”
The Gators maintained a two-game lead in the SEC East Division despite the losses on Friday and Saturday because second-place Georgia also fell each night to Vanderbilt.
“Whenever we looked up at the scoreboard and saw that Georgia was losing, that kept our heads up, knowing that we had some breathing room and we didn’t have to demand perfection from ourselves,” Tucker said. “We just needed a win out of this series and we go it.”
Florida will host Jacksonville on Tuesday before finishing the SEC regular season at McKethan Stadium against Kentucky. The series will be played on Thursday, Friday and Saturday to allow an extra day of preparation for the SEC Tournament in Hoover, Ala.