Trailing 2-0 on a brutally hot day in Gainesville, Nelson Maldonado’s three-run home run in the fourth inning propelled the No. 5 Florida Gators to a 6-4win over No. 6 Kentucky for a series win.
The win ensures that Florida (40-15/21-9 SEC) will be, at worst, a co-regular season SEC champion with LSU. The Tigers need to beat Mississippi State to tie Florida.
“I’ll watch (LSU-Mississippi State) but I’m going to kick back and relax,” Kevin O’Sullivan said with a chuckle. “It’s been a long year, a long year and today was hot. I’m gonna kick back, relax and enjoy the rest of the days with my kids. Just enjoy it. (SEC Championships) aren’t easy to come by.”
Florida starter Jackson Kowar gave up a quick run in the first inning. The sophomore gave up a one out double to Evan White and a two out double to Luke Becker as UK (38-18/19-11 SEC) built a 1-0 lead. The Cats doubled that in the third. Kowar got two outs on just five pitches before Kentucky started a two-out rally. White doubled again and scored on Zack Reks’ single to right center.
On the other side of the field Kentucky starter Justin Lewis, cousin of Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman, was dealing. The sophomore didn’t allow a hit through the first three innings and just three base runners on a hit batter, throwing error by the shortstop and a fielder’s choice.
That all changed in the fourth inning.
Dalton Guthrie worked a full count, fouling several pitches off before lining a single off of Lewis’ calf. Guthrie legged out the infield single but rolled his ankle on first base and had to leave the game. Lewis remained in the game after getting checked out by Kentucky’s trainers and throwing a couple of warm up pitches but he wasn’t the same.
Schwarz doubled to left center to advance Blake Reese, who replaced the injured Guthrie, to third. Nelson Maldonado worked into a hitter’s count, 2-1, before belting his home run down the fight field line. The ball barely cleared the right field wall just inside of the foul pole.
“It was up and out and I knew I hit it pretty well,” Maldonado said of the home run. “I know the wind got ahold of it and it started carrying and went out. It was awesome.”
Dinger pic.twitter.com/7WstPpmRoL
— Nick de la Torre (@NickdelaTorreGC) May 20, 2017
The loss of Guthrie seemingly sparked the run and Maldonado said as much after the game.
“We kind of used it as motivation,” Maldonado said of how the group responded when Guthrie had to leave the game. “He’s a huge part of our team and we take pride in having him on our team. We wanted to get the ‘W’ for him.”
Florida tacked on two more runs in the very next frame. Ryan Larson singled to start the inning and stole second after Blake Reese popped out. Schwarz walked and Maldonado doubled both of them home, his fourth RBI of the game, extending the Florida lead to 5-2. Blake Reese drove Mark Kolozsvary in with a single in the sixth to make it 6-2 before Kowar found trouble.
The sophomore had been working in and out of trouble all day long. In the fourth inning he worked around second and third with one out and Marcus Carson up. Kowar got two quick outs in the fifth inning before hitting a batter, surrendering a single and walking the bases loaded. He stranded all three runners when Riley Mahan flew out to left field.
“Two situations in the game where I really think he grew from,” O’Sullivan said. “Second and third with one out and Carson up and got a big strikeout there when he needed it. I think Mahan was up when he got the fly ball to left. Those are big moments for him. He threw great. This was not an easy lineup to throw to. It’s not a fluke that they’re leading the league in a lot of offensive categories.”
With his pitch count topping 90, Kowar finally started slowing down in the seventh. A quick fly out was followed by a four-pitch walk to Tristan Pompey, prompting a hook from O’Sullivan.
Senior Frank Rubio replaced him, but gave up a hit on the only pitch he threw before Nick Horvath took over. The lefty sandwiched a hit batter between two outs to get out of the jam and head to the eighth.
Horvath walked the leadoff batter and was replaced by closer Nick Horvath in a non-save situation. Byrne struck out Kole Cottam but left a fastball up in the zone to Marcus Carson and the center fielder deposited it over the wall in right field to trim Florida’s lead to just 6-4. Byrne bounced back with two strikeouts to get off the field.
“I just left one pitch up,” he said. “He put a pretty good swing on it. I just had to get back to the strike zone and execute my pitches.”
Byrne returned to the mound in the ninth inning and retired the side in order.
#Gators win. 40-15/21-9 in SEC play. pic.twitter.com/RbYIcXxVQk
— Nick de la Torre (@NickdelaTorreGC) May 20, 2017
The win not only gave Florida at worst a share of the regular season conference championship but earned them the No. 1 seed in the SEC Tournament that starts next week.