Florida Gators take Sunshine State showdown from FSU

Shaun Anderson pumped his first as Dalton Guthrie fired to first for the 27th out on Tuesday night, sealing a 3-2 win for the No. 2 Florida Gators (24-3, 4-2 SEC) over instate rival Florida State (18-6, 6-1 ACC).

Coming off of back-to-back losses to Kentucky the Florida Gators didn’t have time to feel sorry for themselves. Less than 48 hours after landing in Orlando from Lexington, the team was back on a bus heading to Jacksonville and the Gators had to refocus.

In front of 9,035 fans freshman Jackson Kowar watched his fourth pitch of the game sail off the bat of fellow freshman Cal Raleigh and over the wall in left. Kowar, who admitted this was the biggest crowd he’d ever played in front of, settled down, striking out Dylan Busby to end the frame.

“You just kind of take deep breaths and slow the game down, which is a lot easier said than done, especially when you get out there and it gets loud,” Kowar said of his thoughts in the first inning Tuesday.

Kowar didn’t have long to take that breath. Florida State had two games rained out the previous weekend, so normal Saturday starter, Drew Carlton, earned a rare midweek start and he mowed Florida down in order in the first inning.

The next frame went better. Kowar retired the first two before another surrendering another two-out hit, but this one stayed in the park and Darren Miller’s pop fly to right ended the second.

Deacon Liput singled with one out in the second, bringing up Mike Rivera. Florida’s designated hitter watched a strike, stepped out of the box and gathered his composure. Carlton set from the stretch but let a changeup float high.

“I don’t try to hit home runs. That’s not my game,” Rivera, who leads the team with six home runs, said. “He just threw me a changeup up and I hit it.”

Florida added a run in the bottom of the third when Jonathan India — who walked, stole second and advanced to third on a groundout by Dalton Guthrie — scored on Buddy Reed’s triple down the right field line.

Kowar worked quickly in the top of the fourth, getting a fly out and a line out before Jackson Lueck singled to left — the Noles’ third two-out hit of the night. What happened next is a pitcher’s dream.

Miller ripped a 3-1 fastball down the right field line and Jeremy Vasquez chased the ball all the way to the wall, where it took a friendly FSU hop, rather than kicking back off the padding towards Vasquez. The Florida right fielder had to take an extra step, barehanded the ball, turn and fire blind towards the cutoff man, Deacon Liput, who was a good 25 feet into the outfield.

“As soon as Deacon got it, I saw the runner at third and I was like, ‘just cut loose here,’” Kowar said.

Liput fired a strike to home, third base side that allowed JJ Schwarz to catch the ball and apply a tag to keep the lead at 3-1 and steal momentum. The relay, a scene out of a Tom Emanski infomercial was as fundamental as it gets.

“That’s something we work on a lot and obviously executed well” said Rivera. “Jeremy got it in quick, you can’t ask for any better than that. Liput got the ball in and JJ made a bad-ass tag, a hell of a tag.”

Florida kept hitting, but couldn’t find places where Florida State didn’t put people. The Gators managed just five hits over the game but the bullpen, which faltered on Saturday and Sunday, came through. Brady Singer pitched three innings, gave up two hits, ne unearned run and struck out three. Anderson closed out his fourth game of the season, striking out two in the process.

Florida has defeated Florida State four games in a row dating back to the 2015 Gainesville Super Regional and nine of the last 11 meetings as well.

Nick de la Torre
A South Florida native, Nick developed a passion for all things sports at a very young age. His love for baseball was solidified when he saw Al Leiter’s no-hitter for the Marlins live in May of 1996. He was able to play baseball in college but quickly realized there isn’t much of a market for short, slow outfielders that hit around the Mendoza line. Wanting to continue with sports in some capacity he studied journalism at the University of Central Florida. Nick got his first start in the business as an intern for a website covering all things related to the NFL draft before spending two seasons covering the Florida football team at Bleacher Report. That job led him to GatorCountry. When he isn’t covering Gator sports, Nick enjoys hitting way too many shots on the golf course, attempting to keep up with his favorite t.v. shows and watching the Heat, Dolphins and Marlins. Follow him on twitter @NickdelatorreGC