After being swept last weekend at Arkansas, the Florida Gators baseball team knew it needed to break out the brooms this weekend against visiting Tennessee to get back in the Southeastern Conference Eastern Division race.
Mission accomplished. Rallying from a 3-0 deficit, coach Kevin O’Sullivan’s No. 25 Gators broke a 4-4 tie Sunday with two runs in the seventh inning on way to a 7-5 victory over the Volunteers before 2,859 fans at McKethan Stadium that completed a three-game sweep.
The victory was the eighth come-from-behind triumph by the Gators, who won for the fifth straight time to improve to 14-7 overall (3-3 in the SEC East) heading into Tuesday’s game at North Florida in Jacksonville that is the first of a home-and-home series.
Game time Tuesday is 7 p.m., a half hour later than Wednesday’s first pitch in Gainesville. Florida will send freshman right-hander Anthony DeSclafani (1-0, 5.02 ERA) to the mound.
Tennessee fell to 9-12, 1-5 in the SEC Eastern Division.
“This was a big weekend for us,” Florida head coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “They got up 3-0, but I was really happy with how we battled back. (Our) bullpen pitchers all had great weeks. We battled. I knew going into this one that it was going to be tough.”
From the beginning, the Volunteers looked poised to fight off the sweep. Cody Hawn doubled in Josh Liles in the first inning, giving Tennessee an early 1-0 lead against Florida senior right-handed starter Patrick Keating. In the second inning, Zach Osborne doubled down the right-field line to score two runs, bumping the Tennessee lead to 3-0.
After Florida scored one in the bottom of the second when Clayton Pisani grounded into a bases-loaded double play, Tennessee got the run back in the top of the third inning. Charley Thurber walked and scored on a three-base error by first baseman Teddy Foster.
That ended Keating’s day after 2.1 innings. He allowed four hits and four runs, only two of which were earned. O’Sullivan brought in Alex Panteliodis, who gave the Gators a second straight solid performance. On Tuesday, he shut down Florida State over 4.1 innings. Sunday, he did the same to Tennessee in four innings of relief.
“I thought he came in and did an outstanding job,” O’Sullivan said. “It changed momentum for us.”
The freshman hopes he is more relaxed now. He has five starts on the season, but Sunday’s work out of the bullpen showed he could help the Gators in multiple ways this season.
“I just went in there and did my job,” Panteliodis said. “Coach told me I was going to be the first out (of the bullpen). I was ready for it. I was very surprised it was that early. I expected Pat to go longer, but that happens. It has happened to me. I was just trying to get ahead with a first pitch strike and it worked out well.”
The Gators were down 4-2 heading into the fifth inning when their bats broke out and knocked Tennessee starter Bryan Morgado out of the game.
Matt den Dekker singled down the left-field line and Josh Adams sent him to third on a single to right. Avery Barnes walked to load up the bases. Aaron Tullo came out of the bullpen for Tennessee, but he hit Buddy Munroe with a fastball to bring in a run.
Tullo got back-to-back strikeouts of Florida’s Preston Tucker and Daniel Pigott, but then sent a 1-2 pitch to the backstop, allowing Adams to score from third with the tying run.
“I feel comfortable,” said Adams, who went 3-for-5 to lead the 11-hit Florida attack. “There hasn’t really been a time when I haven’t felt comfortable. You have your bad days, but today was a good day for me.”
Adams started the seventh inning with his third hit of the game on a line drive to right field. Barnes then lined a 3-2 fastball down the right-field line for a triple, scoring Adams. After Munroe grounded out to shortstop, Tucker singled up the middle to score Adams, pushing the Gators lead to 6-4 after seven innings. They would tack on a run in the eighth inning when Riley Cooper scored on a wild pitch.
Barnes was 3-for-10 on the weekend with the bat, but it’s his career numbers against Tennessee that are the most impressive. He is 15-of-33 (.455) with four home runs, 22 RBI and 12 runs scored in nine career games against the Volunteers.
“I really have no idea (what it is about them),” Barnes said. “I guess it’s luck. They’re fun to play against. You know they’re always going to come out and play extremely hard. Any time you can beat a good ballclub it’s always fun.”
Many were worried about the Florida bats, but the team combined to hit .351 this weekend, outscoring the Volunteers 20-9. Despite those numbers, the Gators still had two innings on Sunday where they had bases loaded and no outs and were only able to score one run.
“I just don’t think we’re aggressive offensively as we need to be,” O’Sullivan said. “We’re taking a lot of pitches in the count that I think we could put good swings on. The swings are starting to come along. I’m seeing a lot better swings, but I’d just like to see them be a little more aggressive earlier in the count.”