Sophomore shortstop Colby Shelton was the hero in Gainesville on Friday night, smacking a three-run walk off home run in the bottom of the 10th to take game one vs. Saint Mary’s by a score of 12-11. The opposite field blast was Shelton’s second long ball of the night and 8th of the season.
“Be on time for fastball, obviously it was a slider, dude was throwing a bunch of sliders tonight. I was sitting slider, got slider, put a good swing on it,” Shelton said on his approach in his final at bat.
Shelton has 32 collegiate home runs in his career but claims this one was the coolest.
“There’s nothing cooler than it, walk off in the home stadium, get a win for this team. It’s hard to describe, but the feeling is ecstatic.”
Shelton posted the first three hit game of his Gators’ career while adding a season high five RBI vs. Saint Mary’s.
“He’s a hard-nosed player. To come up in that spot and go the other way, and sit on a slider, and be committed to it, and actually do what he did, not everybody can do that, rise to the occasion like that,” Kevin O’Sullivan said on Shelton postgame. “We are fortunate to have him, he’s a really, really good baseball player.”
Offensive explosion
The Gators had their best offensive approach of the season on Friday night, totaling 12 runs on 14 hits against the Gaels. Florida scored in seven of their ten trips to the plate, which was a promising sign after struggling in the middle innings of games earlier this year.
“We swung the bats extremely well tonight against some good arms,” O’Sullivan said postgame. “Our offense did a heck of a job.”
The only real struggle at the plate came in the 8th and 9th inning when RHP Preston Howey struck out six straight Gators using a devastating put away slider. When their backs were against the wall, the bats came through like they did for the majority of the game.
“We strung together some really good at bats against a really good arm,” O’Sullivan said postgame. “We won it in a way that we hadn’t won any games like that this year. It at least gives you some confidence knowing we can come back against their best arm.”
Pitching concerns?
Florida won the ballgame, but it happened after Florida’s closer Brandon Neely allowed three runs in the top of the 9th and two more in the top of the 10th, putting a lot of pressure on the Gators’ offense to come through in the clutch.
“It just was one of those nights for him. We’ve seen him pitch expectational well. And maybe it’s part because he hasn’t pitched a whole lot,” O’Sullivan said on Neely postgame.
Neely wasn’t the only one that struggled as Friday night starter Cade Fisher allowed five runs on seven hits across five innings pitched. The start to Fisher’s 2024 is unique in its own right. His strikeout numbers are the best they’ve ever been, but his command and pitch location have resulted in a number of hard-hit balls and extra base hits from opposing teams, which is the exact opposite outcome from Fisher’s 2023 season, who generated a ton of weak contact throughout his freshman campaign.
“It’s definitely frustrating. I’ve never gotten this many whiffs in my career, but I’ve also never given up this many hits and this many hard-hit balls,” Fisher said postgame. “I don’t really know exactly what it is. I don’t know if they are just seeing me well on certain pitches, but I know I got to get better.”
It’s pretty bizarre seeing two 2023 All-American pitchers nearly blow a game for the Gators against Saint Mary’s. Nobody has an answer for that, not even Florida’s coaching staff.
“We got to look at this thing, I don’t know what the right answers are. The way we drew it up is certainly not the way it’s worked out the first 13 games,” O’Sullivan said postgame. “I’m at a loss for words right now on how we have miscalculated up to this point on who should be starting and who’s the middle guys to bridge the gap to Neely. But we haven’t been able to use Brandon.”
It’s still a young season and there’s time for improvement, but SEC plays starts next week and Florida is still searching to string together solid pitching performances.
Florida improved to 9-4 on the season and will look to take the series on Saturday at 1:00 PM.
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