All of the Florida Gators’ early-season struggles at the plate, which continued through nearly eight innings against Tennessee starter Nick Hernandez on Friday night, melted away in one waning moment during the opener of a crucial Southeastern Conference weekend series at McKethan Stadium.
“It comes down to one big play, one big pitch and one big swing of the bat,” Florida head coach Kevin O’Sullivan said.
Friday night’s big play was an eighth-inning, two-run home run by Florida center fielder Matt den Dekker, who tagged a two-out pitch over the right-field fence to give the Gators their first lead of the evening. It was one they wouldn’t relinquish as Florida capitalized on a strong performance from starter Jeff Barfield to take a 3-2 decision over the Volunteers.
“We needed that,” O’Sullivan said following the first SEC victory of the season for No. 25 Florida (12-7, 1-3 SEC East). “That’s what good teams do. Their leaders step up. Hopefully this will be a jump start for our entire team offensively, and certainly for Matt.”
The bomb by den Dekker certainly provided a spark Friday night. The importance of his home run was echoed by Barfield. “Everybody was just ecstatic,” he said. “It was just awesome. It was a great hit. I love to see that.”
After driving in what proved to be the winning runs for Florida, the normally calm and collected den Dekker showed a burst of emotion rarely seen by his teammates. He flipped his bat after making contact and yelled at his teammates and the home fans after crossing home plate.
The display was something O’Sullivan felt was long overdue from his preseason All-American.
“That’s one of the things we’ve kind of talked to [den Dekker] about,” O’Sullivan said. “We need him to be not only a leader on the field, but a vocal leader. Any good team, their best players have to be vocal leaders. They have to assume that responsibility if you’re going to be as good as you want to be.”
Josh Adams and Clayton Pisani both had two hits on the night for Florida. Adams would drive in Pisani in the sixth after the junior second baseman hit a blooper into shallow center that just happened to find a hole in the defense of Tennessee (9-10, 1-3 SEC East).
While the deciding home run by den Dekker may have provided the Gators the shot in the arm they needed offensively, they wouldn’t have been in a position to win the game without a tremendous performance from Barfield. He pitched 6.2 innings, notching nine strikeouts (a season high for a Florida pitcher) as he continued to establish himself as Florida’s toughest pitcher in the early part of the season.
His performance may not have been dominating, but Barfield has shown that his greatest asset is his mental toughness. It was a trait his coach would remark to following a great showing.
“Arguably, yeah.” O’Sullivan said when asked if Barfield is the best pitcher on the staff right now. “He certainly has been very competitive. He hasn’t had an off inning. You know a guy is doing pretty good if you’re getting upset over one pitch, not one inning or one outing.”
Barfield’s nine strikeouts were stretched over the course of the entire game as he recorded a strikeout in every inning he pitched. Afterwards, he felt confident about his second start of the year as the junior-college transfer continues to establish his presence in the Gator rotation. “I felt pretty good,” he said of his performance. “In the first inning, I got two outs real quick, then two strikes (on Tennessee first baseman Cody Hawn) and made a bad pitch. But after that I felt pretty good.”
Even with a great start from Barfield, the strong performances from relievers Tony Davis and Billy Bullock brought an important conference victory home. Barfield went so far to acknowledge the great performances by Davis and Bullock following the game.
“It’s a great win. The way we won it, too. Billy came in there and shut the door down. Tony Davis picked me up when I came out,” Barfield said.
Davis pitched 1.1 innings to earn the victory. Bullock struck out two in the top of the ninth to earn the save.
O’Sullivan also touched on the strong relief performances he received on Friday night.
“I can’t say enough about Tony Davis and [Billy] Bullock,” the coach said. “We had some heart-to-hearts last weekend. Some serious talks. Sometimes that’s not easy for a coach to do. They needed to step up. Both guys have had outstanding weeks. They’ve had a part in all three wins (over Florida State, UCF and Tennessee) so far, and we need those guys.”
Now that the Gators have a conference win in the column, O’Sullivan hopes this will take some of the pressure off of his squad which may have started to feel the weight of its lofty preseason expectations.
“We’ve been pressing a little bit,” O’Sullivan said. “One game turns into three, three turns into five. Every pitch is magnified, every error is magnified. Hopefully this will loosen us up. I really thought the bench did an excellent job tonight. They were focused, they were into it. That plays a huge part in the college game. I’m awfully proud of them.”
The Gators try to clinch the series Saturday at 4 p.m. Tennessee will start junior right-hander Stephen McCray, while the Gators will counter with freshman left-hander Nick Maronde. The series concludes Sunday at 1 p.m.