Kevin O’Sullivan’s 15-year tenure as the Gators’ head coach has been filled with spectacular pitching performances.
Hudson Randall’s 74-pitch complete game shutout of Tennessee in 2011. Jonathan Crawford’s no-hitter against Bethune-Cookman in the NCAA Tournament in 2012. And, of course, there are too many instances to name of guys like Logan Shore, Alex Faedo and Brady Singer pretty much willing the Gators to victory.
While the stakes weren’t particularly high in an early-season game against a Sun Belt team, what Hunter Barco and Nick Ficarrotta did against Georgia State on Friday night belongs in the conversation as one of the most dominant pitching efforts of the O’Sullivan era.
The two third-year players combined to strike out 18 batters and issue just one free pass. They only gave up three hits. That means that they registered six more strikeouts than there were balls put in play (3 hits + 9 outs = 12 balls in play).
Their swing-and-miss stuff was enough for the No. 15 Gators to defeat the Panthers, 4-1, in the series opener at Florida Ballpark.
Barco was responsible for 12 of those strikeouts in his six innings. He gave up all three of Georgia State’s hits and issued the only walk.
This marks the second week in a row that he has established a new career high in strikeouts after he struck out 11 Liberty batters in the season opener last week. In 12 total innings this season, he has given up just one run on four hits with 23 strikeouts and two walks.
That’ll win the game just about every time out.
“Typically, the second start is not as sharp because you extend them the first outing, and, sometimes, physically, they don’t feel the same,” O’Sullivan said. “But he was really good tonight.
“I thought the tempo between Mac [Guscette] and he and even Fic when he came in, it was fast-paced. It was really good. Barco was really good tonight.”
It might seem hard to believe now, but Barco’s night didn’t get off to a very promising start. Panthers left fielder Josh Smith crushed his second pitch of the game into the right center field gap for a leadoff triple. He came in to score on Cameron Jones’ groundout to short two batters later. Just like that, while the crowd was still filing in, Georgia State led 1-0.
“It was really big,” Barco said. “He put a good swing on a good pitch, and I knew I had to bear down. I wasn’t going to let anyone else cross the plate after he did.”
He kept that promise and then some. As it turned out, the Panthers (4-2) only got a runner past first base on one other occasion. Smith drew a one-out walk in the third and stole both second and third with two outs. Barco worked out of that jam by getting Jones to ground out to second.
Barco finished his night red hot, striking out two batters in the second and third innings and striking out the side in the fourth and sixth innings.
Ficarrotta took over to start the seventh and somehow improved upon what Barco did. He retired all nine batters that he faced, six of them via strikeouts, to get credit for a rare three-inning save.
Dating back to the final game of the Liberty series, Ficarrotta has given up just one hit and no runs in his last 8 2/3 innings. He’s struck out 12 and walked just one during that stretch.
“I think he’s been commanding the ball, and he doesn’t walk people,” O’Sullivan said. “We’ve asked him to change his arm slot. He was very open to it, and I think it just gave us a different look. Him and Blake [Purnell] have been extremely valuable out on the mound, really valuable. He’s got really good command, and he’s got a changeup he can throw to lefties. He’s been everything we’ve asked him to be.”
Offensively, the Gators (4-2) weren’t great on Friday. They went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position, which kept the game closer than it probably should have been.
“I thought we hit some balls hard,” O’Sullivan said. “I thought our approach was good. We weren’t pulling off the ball. The only negative thing is we had first and second with nobody out [in the fifth], and we had three consecutive at bats where we hit with two strikes, and that was the point in the game to open it up. I told the team there at the end, ‘If you want me to put a drag bunt on with first and second with nobody out to make sure we get a runner to third with less than two, you’re going to force my hand.’ We’ve got to be able to score, even if it’s just one.”
Wyatt Langford accounted for two of the runs. With runners on second and third and one out in the bottom of the first, he tied the game at one with a groundout to short. Jud Fabian scored on a wild pitch later in the inning to give the Gators the lead for good.
Langford cranked his second home run of the season, this one into the Gators’ bullpen in right field, in the third inning on a knee-high fastball from Panthers starter Brandon Kaminer to make it 3-1.
“I was looking for a fastball away, kind of knew the guy was going away all night,” he said. “So, I was just looking for a fastball out over the plate a little bit, and I just put a good swing on it.”
Josh Rivera added a solo shot in the eighth off of Joseph Brandon to provide the Gators with an insurance run.
Of course, it was an insurance run that they didn’t need. With the way that Barco and Ficarrotta pitched, they weren’t going to lose this game as long as the offense even had a pulse.
Florida will look to clinch its first series victory of the year on Saturday at 4.