With three fist pumps and a celebratory scream, Matt den Dekker woke up the Florida offense. His two-out, RBI drag bunt to first base gave the Gators a late lead they wouldn’t relinquish and opened the flood gates for a seventh inning that would propel Florida (15-3, 2-0) to a 5-4 victory over Mississippi State Saturday night at McKethan Stadium in front of a season-high crowd of 4,823.
“It got the team going and drove in a big run,” den Dekker said. “Anytime that happens to take the lead or get a big run, it’s important. It’s good to show a little emotion at the right point in the game.”
The drag bunt has been a key part of den Dekker’s offensive arsenal since his freshman year in Gainesville. As a left-handed hitter, he gets his momentum heading towards first base and drags the ball with him to the right side of the infield. The goal is to hit it hard enough to get the ground ball past the pitcher. This forces either the first baseman or second baseman to field the ball, and it will usually pull the first baseman far enough off the bag that there is no one left to cover.
“That play is a really difficult play to defend,” Florida head coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “He’s so fast and puts it in a really good spot. If he gets it by the pitcher, it’s a foot race with the second baseman or first baseman. He’s probably going to win most of those races.”
After den Dekker reached first and Tyler Thompson went to third, Mississippi State brought in Greg Houston to face Josh Adams. On a 0-2 pitch, den Dekker stole second and purposely got in a run down between first and second. He stayed in it long enough to sneak into second base, also allowing Thompson to steal home, the first time the Gators have done so since March 27, 2004 against Kentucky.
“I didn’t want to slide into the third out there, so I kind of held up,” den Dekker said. “He made it home, and when you win by one run, every one run that scores is important. You don’t ever want to slide into the third out. I didn’t get the best jump and I saw the ball was probably going to beat me there, so I just pulled up.”
The Bulldogs then brought on C.C Watson to face Preston Tucker, who hit the first pitch down the left field line for a double, scoring two runs and giving Florida a 5-1 lead after seven innings.
“He’s a curve ball pitcher and I knew he was going to try to throw a curve ball right out of the (bull)pen,” Tucker said. “He threw one for a strike and I put a good swing on it.”
For the first six innings the Florida offense sputtered. Florida’s only run came on a solo homer by Tucker to left field, his fourth homer and fourth straight game to take the ball out of the yard. The school record is a home in five straight games, set by Matt LaPorta.
The opportunities to score were there early in the game, but the Gators couldn’t cash in. They had runners on first and second with no outs twice in the first five innings and were unable to scratch a run across until the Tucker blast.
Florida base runners were kept on edge throughout the game by Mississippi State starting pitcher Chris Stratton. His pickoff move was widely debated throughout the game by both teams, with O’Sullivan coming out to argue twice that the move was a balk.
While the Florida hitters remained off balance for the first half of the game, Florida starting pitcher Brian Johnson returned the favor to the Mississippi State offense.
The freshman left-hander went 6-1/3 innings, allowing five hits and one run while striking out four batters. After having questionable control and throwing a lot of pitches early in the game, Johnson settled in to retire 12 of the final 14 batters he faced.
“I just got comfortable,” Johnson said of his increased efficiency as the game went on. “My past few outings didn’t go as well as I liked, but I just settled down. It was very important (to bounce back) to let the team know they can rely on me in big situations.”
Nick Maronde (2-0, 5.93) relived Johnson and picked up the victory, going 1-2/3 innings and allowing two hits and one run.
Closer Kevin Chapman recorded his fourth save of the season, but he also had a scoreless streak snapped. Coming into the game, the junior left-hander hadn’t allowed a run in 16-2/3 innings, going back to last season. He gave up two runs in the ninth innings on Saturday night but still earned the save.
The Gators will go for the series sweep on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. Florida isn’t sure who will be the starting pitcher, but it will likely be either freshman right-handed pitcher Hudson Randall (2-0, 4.42) or sophomore right-hander Anthony DeSclafani (2-1, 4.11). The Bulldogs will counter with sophomore left-hander Nick Routt (1-1, 7.27), who was the ace of their pitching staff last season before having a rough start to 2010.