The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. The No. 1 Florida Gators and Harvard’s three game series that was supposed to end on Sunday was changed due to forecasted inclimate weather on Sunday, so the Gators and Crimson summoned the spirit of Ernie Banks and played two on Saturday.
The Gators (17-1) used a pair of three run home runs to power past Harvard (2-5) in game one 9-2 and a career-best 13 strikeouts of 8.1 innings of two hit baseball from Alex Faedo to sweep the series with a 3-1 victory.
Game one:
Junior left-hander A.J. Puk drew the start for the Orange and Blue in the first leg of the double header. The left-hander has had a slow start to the 2016 season but turned a corner last weekend and looked to keep that momentum going.
Puk allowed just one hit over 5.1 innings pitched — a season high in innings, and went into the sixth with a 1-0 lead after Jonathan India scored on a Dalton Guthrie sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fifth.
Puk retired the first batter he faced in the sixth before registering his third walk of the game and was pulled in favor of Kevin O’Sullivan. Brady Singer relieved Puk, but allowed a runner to score (the run was charged to Puk) before escaping the frame.
Harvard starter Sean Poppen had matched the potential No. 1 overall pick pitch for pitch, stifling the Florida bats all afternoon. JJ Schwarz opened the Gators’ half of the inning with a double and was advanced to third by Pete Alonso’s single through the left side. Jeremy Vasquez ripped a ball down the first base line that wedged itself under the outfield padding for a ground rule double. Schwarz scored and Florida left two runners in scoring position for Nelson Maldonado.
Maldonado came into the weekend 2-27 on the year. The freshman was understandably frustrated but made the adjustment of backing off of the plate prior to the start of the series. Maldonado fell behind early but got a fastball belt high on a 1-2 count and lined a ball into left field that just cleared the wall for his first career home run.
“Starting off with the first game, the home run really lightened up the mood for me,” the freshman said. “It was a confidence booster. It was another great game offensively, that puts a smile on our face and it gets us going.”
Hitting is contagious and Florida came down with the bug after a big four run fifth.
Dalton Guthrie and Deacon Liput started the bottom of the sixth off with a single and a walk before Schwarz fouled out to first on a 3-0 count. Pete Alonso took a nine iron to the plate a skied a ball high into the night for Florida’s second three-run homerun of the night. The blast extended Florida’s lead to 8-1. Florida and Harvard traded runs in the eight before Michael Byrne closed out the game with a nine pitch ninth.
Game Two:
Sophomore Alex Faedo has been lights out all season, save his outing last weekend against Dartmouth. Faedo looked like a man on a mission against Harvard, striking out the first five batters he faced and seven of the first nine.
“What can you say? He was lights out,” head coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “He’s very, very competitive.”
Not to be outdone, Harvard starter Nick Gruener worked a gem of his own. The right-hander was bringing it 92-94 and had great command of his off-speed pitches. Gruener scattered four hits through the first six innings, frustrating the Florida offense and keeping the game knotted at zero all the way into the seventh.
Alonso started the seventh off with a single into right field and moved to second on Jeremy Vasquez’s single into center. With two runners on and no outs Mike Rivera executed a sacrifice bunt to move both runners up 90 feet. Maldonado, riding high off of his big day at the plate in the first game, laced a double to the wall in right center to score Alonso and Vasquez and break the tie.
“I just had to put the ball in play, and that is exactly what I was trying to do,” Maldonado said. “I had to get the ball in the air or at least deep enough to put a man on third. I got lucky with the gap and got a double out of it.”
Florida used a suicide squeeze to score Maldonado later in the inning, a call O’Sullivan couldn’t recall making in his nine-year career at Florida.
Faedo worked a scoreless eighth, striking out two more to reach a career-high 13 and returned to the mound with 93 pitches in the ninth. Faedo needed just three pitches to record the first out but he was chased from the game when Trent Bryan doubled Faedo’s 101st offering of the night to right center.
Kirby Snead would allow one unearned run in he ninth before shutting the door.
The Gators three game sweep was their 11th consecutive win of the season and they’ll put that streak on the line Tuesday when Florida State makes its annual trip to Gainesville at 7 p.m. Dane Dunning will get the ball for the first of three meetings with the Seminoles.