Tommy Toledo thrives on efficiency. After struggling with his command during his first start of the season, the sophomore right-hander dazzled for five innings Thursday night, allowing one walk and only two runs on only 59 pitches. He struck out a career-high seven batters, helping Florida to cruise to a 13-3 victory over Siena at McKethan Stadium.
“This was a lot better [than the first start],” Toledo said. “I commanded the ball a lot better today. Getting used to it the first game out was a little different, but I felt like I fixed my mistakes. I just settled in. I just felt comfortable from the first pitch out.”
Toledo (1-0, 2.16 ERA) dealt four perfect innings to start the game. After the Gators put together a lengthy four-run fourth inning, Toledo trotted back out to the mound. His control wasn’t nearly as good as it was in the first four innings as he walked the first batter then gave up a single and a double.
That brought Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan to the mound and after a short talk, Toledo responded by striking out Kyle Hudson and Mike Allen. Andrew Sawyer delivered an RBI single before Toledo ended the inning with a strikeout of Anthony Giansanti to end the inning and his night on the mound.
Toledo’s threw 33 strikes in 38 pitches in the first four innings. Even though he gave up the walk and was touched with some hits in the fifth, he still only threw 59 pitches and 47 were for strikes. He threw first-pitch strikes to 16 of the 19 hitters he faced.
“He was really efficient,” O’Sullivan said. “That’s what he was before he got injured [two seasons ago]. He always had really good command. He was sharper tonight than he was on the first night. I expect him to get better as we go along.”
A double by Siena’s Larry Balkwill scored the first run of the game in the fifth, ending a steak of 22-1/3 innings to start the season where the Florida starting pitchers didn’t allow an earned run. Freshmen Brian Johnson and Hudson Randall contributed 10-1/3 of the innings.
“Going into the season, I thought our strength was going to be our pen,” O’Sullivan said. “Now you look up five games in and it looks like it’s your starting pitching. I still believe in our pen and know it will be good, but our starting pitching has been really good so far.”
Toledo, who went 71 pitches in his debut on last Friday, had his time on the mound shortened Thursday because O’Sullvan didn’t want to risk his pitcher’s arm tightening up in the cooler weather. The game was played in mid-30s temperatures and O’Sullivan wasn’t even sure he would pitch Toledo, who is coming back from surgery on a torn labrum.
“I even contemplated not throwing him tonight,” O’Sullivan said. “I wanted to make sure he got completely loose in the bullpen. He had no restrictions at all and we went with him. We were going to let him go five [innings] and that was it, regardless of the pitch count.”
Toledo’s quick innings allowed the Florida offense to keep the pressure on Sienna starting pitcher Robert Tedesco. It felt as if the Gators were constantly hitting through the first half of the game because of the way Toledo breezed through the Siena hitters.
The Florida scoring started in the third inning. Matt den Dekker led off with a single to extend his hitting streak to a career-high 14 games and he moved to second when Josh Adams was hit by a pitch. Preston Tucker singled to right field to load the bases. After Austin Maddox hit a sacrifice fly to right field that scored scoring den Dekker and moved Adams to third, Tyler Thompson tripled down the right field line to score two and give Florida a 3-0 lead.
Ben McMahan led off Florida’s fourth inning with a home run over the left field bleachers. After Nolan Fontana grounded out to second, Jerico Weitzel walked and stole second. den Dekker drove him in with a single to center field, for his fifth-straight multi-hit game. Adams then doubled down the left field line to score den Dekker. After Tucker struck out, Maddox singled to center field to score Adams and stretch Florida’s lead to 7-0.
The scoring barrage continued in the sixth when Maddox led off with a single and moved to second when Thompson was hit by a pitch. Daniel Pigott grounded a single up the middle to bring score Maddox and McMahan followed with a double to center field to drive home Thompson. Fontana and Weitzel hit run-scoring ground outs to second base to push the Florida lead to 12-2.
Eight of Florida’s starting nine hitters got a hit and seven of the nine had an RBI.
“I really like our depth right now,” O’Sullivan said with a greedy smile considering the depth he has.
den Dekker’s RBI triple in the eighth inning gave him his first career four-hit game to go with mixing in two stolen bases. He has a team-high .500 (12-24) batting average on the season. When he realized before his eight-inning at-bat that he was a hit away from his first four-hit game as a Gator, den Dekker leaned over to teammate Jonathan Pigott and said that there was no choice but to get the record.
“Anytime you can get four hits in a game, it’s going to be a good night,” den Dekker said. “I’m not trying to do too much. I’m leading off, so I’m just trying to be on base for the guys behind me to drive me in. I’m finding holes right now.”
Fontana’s defense at shortstop has solidified a Florida defense that struggled early last season. The Gators haven’t committed an error on an infield grounder. Of their four errors, one was on catcher’s interference, two were on dropped fly balls and the fourth was on a mishandled ball in the outfield.
Fontana has made a handful of outstanding plays this season, including a back-handed play deep at his position Thursday night, where he fired across the diamond for the out. He makes the tough plays but it is his ability to make the routine plays that was missing from the Gators last season.
While defense will remain his specialty, Fontana did pull a solo home run to right field in the fifth inning, the first of his Florida career.
“We’ll make sure he hits the ball the other way tomorrow,” O’Sullivan said with a smile. “We don’t want him to get home run happy. I’ve seen him do that quite a bit. He’s got some strength in his swing, and he’s going to hit some home runs. Obviously, that’s not his game, but it was good to see him get his first one.”
Florida relievers Michael Heller, Jeff Barfield, Steven Rodriguez and Justin Poovey combined to throw four innings, allowing three hits and one run while totaling four strikeouts.
Travel problems for La Salle have postponed Friday night’s game, instead creating a doubleheader on Saturday. The first game will start at 2 p.m. Sophomore left-hander Alex Panteliodis (2-0, 2.45) will start one of the games, and freshman left-hander Brian Johnson (1-0, 0.00) will start the other.
The starting pitcher for Sunday’s game is still up in the air. It was sophomore right-hander Anthony DeSclafani (0-0, 0.00), who pitched last Sunday, but he might throw an inning of relief on Saturday so he can be the starting pitcher when the Gators travel to Tampa on Tuesday to play Florida State.