For the third time this weekend Kevin O’Sullivan put the ball and the game into the hands of his closer Michael Byrne. The sophomore, who has been nails all season, knew what he needed to do. Byrne got the final seven outs of the game to earn his 16th save of the season and preserve a 6-1 win to send the Florida Gators to its third-consecutive Super Regional.
Byrne was the MVP for the Gators this weekend. He threw 10 scoreless innings out of the bullpen and factored into all of the Gators’ wins this weekend (1 win, 2 saves).
As is the case in most game sevens in Regional play the Gators and the Wildcats were down to a barebones pitching staff.
“We had to mix-and-match. It was a very interesting conversation that lasted until about two o’clock in the morning. We came to the conclusion that we wanted to start Kirby [McMullen] because he’s a strike thrower,” Kevin O’Sullivan said of what he and his staff came up with during the wee hours of Monday morning after losing Sunday. “His numbers against right-handers are very good. Then we had planned to go to Langworthy.”
The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.
In this case, they went awry because Langworthy, who hadn’t pitched since April 11 against Florida State, was so good Monday.
“It really was two innings for Kirby, two innings for [Langworthy], an inning for [Tyler] Dyson. So we go soft lefty, hard righty, then back to Horvath for two, and then see where we’re at with the ballgame. We had plans about guys going to the outfield once we brought in Langworthy that Blake Reese was probably going to be the first guy out.”
McMullen started the game for the Gators and pitched a scoreless first two frames. The freshman from Ocala got two quick outs in the third inning, already exceeding what the coaches had planned for him, before allowing two base runners. O’Sullivan made the move to pull McMullen, bring Langworthy in from left field and send Blake Reese out to left. Langworthy got Adonis Lao to strikeout on three pitches to get out of the jam.
Despite the lack of pitching depth on either side the game went scoreless through five innings.
“It’s funny how when both teams don’t think they have any pitching the first five innings are shutout,” Bethune-Cookman manager Jason Beverlin said after the game. “That’s usually how it goes. It was a great game. They had some guys step up and really have great games, unbelievable games.”
The course of the game changed in the sixth inning. To that point the Gators were 0-7 with runners in scoring position and had stranded five runners. Nelson Maldonado drew a one-out walk before an error proved costly.
Mike Rivera popped a ball up down the first base line in front of the bag. Wildcat first baseman Danny Rodriguez couldn’t make the play but recovered and tried to throw to second to get the lead runner in Maldonado but his throw sailed high and into the outfield, putting both runners in scoring position. Langworthy came to the plate looking to open the scoring and did just that.
Austin Langworthy’s three-run dinger. #AustinPowers #WereNotLangworthy pic.twitter.com/8osuZMd7nF
— Nick de la Torre (@NickdelaTorreGC) June 5, 2017
“He’s just a gamer,” Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan said of Langworthy. “It’s simple as that. He does a lot of things well. I’ll say this: It does not surprise me that he pitched 4 innings today. I was hoping for 2. … He’s got a knack for rising to the occasion. He’s going to have a great career here.”
The run broke the scoring open and more importantly loosened the Gators up. Florida was able to add insurance runs in the seventh, eighth and ninth on their way to a 6-1 win.
As the No. 3 overall National Seed the Gators will stay home for the Super Regional. They’ll host Wake Forest, who swept the Winston-Salem Regional. Florida will go back to their normal weekend rotation with Alex Faedo throwing game one, followed by Brady Singer.