Austin Langworthy watched the first two offerings from Ethan Abrams sail out of the zone. Sitting on a 2-0 count he was looking for one pitch and Abrams was willing to oblige.
Langworthy turned on a fastball, launching a no-doubter into the night sky over the netting that is in place to protect the street behind right field and into the parking lot of Keys Complex — the first run of a 7-0 win for the Florida Gators (8-2) over Columbia (0-1).
“That one was far,” starting pitcher Alex Faedo (2-0) said after the game. “I’ve seen Deacon (Liput) hit them like that. I don’t know if I’ve seen Langworthy go that way. He’s gone over the bullpen a couple times but never down the line like that. I could see it bounce over there. That was pretty cool.”
Langworthy, just a freshman, got a good look at it as well.
“I think I got caught up in the moment a little bit, but that’s part of the game,” he said. “Especially when you hit balls like that.”
The run was a breath of fresh air for a team that struggled to hit the ball in any form or fashion in two midweek contests. The Gators pieced together 10 hits in 18 innings against UCF, while striking out 15 times. On top of the struggles at the plate, Kevin O’Sullivan didn’t like the way his team competed and he let them know how he felt.
“I mean you’re not going to go 56-0 but the body language was not good,” he said. “I don’t think we competed to the end.”
After a silent ride from Orlando back to Gainesville the Gators had a good practice with renewed focus on Thursday afternoon.
“I thought the energy level was great tonight after a tough game Wednesday,” O’Sullivan said. “I thought we swung the bats better tonight, but we’ve gotta get better. It’s just that simple.”
“I mean you’re not going to go 56-0 but the body language was not good. I don’t think we competed to the end.”
The bats continued to break out. The Gators tacked another run on in the second inning before opening things up in the third. Jonathan India led the inning off with a single into left center and stole second after JJ Schwarz struck out on a 2-2 breaking ball. India advanced to third when Deacon Liput was able to leg out an infield single and Mike Rivera’s ground-rule double scored India and kept runners on the corners for Florida. Freshman Keenan Bell shot a ball through the right side to bring Liput home and Christian Hicks’ sacrifice fly one batter later broke Rivera across the plate.
Florida tacked two more runs on in the fifth inning before the bats went cold.
Faedo gave up one hit in the first inning and then put the game on cruise control, retiring 14 batters in a row before surrendering a single in the sixth inning. The Friday night starter hasn’t allowed a run in his last 15.2 innings pitched. Faedo exited the game after seven innings even though he had thrown just 79 pitches. Freshman Garrett Milchin came on to close out the final two frames, giving up just one hit with one strikeout.
Florida will take on Columbia at McKethan Stadium on Saturday at 4 pm. Brady Singer (2-0, 0.71 ERA) will face off against LHP Josh Simpson (2-4, 6.07 ERA).