For the second road SEC game in a row, Jud Fabian blasted a home run to give the Gators a two-run lead in the latter stages of the game.
For the second road SEC game in a row, the game ended with their top reliever, Blake Purnell, getting walked-off in the bottom of the ninth.
Josh McAllister’s walk-off RBI double in the bottom of the ninth launched No. 23 Georgia past No. 14 Florida, 7-6, on Thursday evening at Foley Field.
The Gators (18-8, 3-4 SEC) began the bottom of the inning with a 6-4 lead, thanks to Fabian’s mammoth two-run shot past the trees in left-center field in the top of the inning.
Things didn’t seem very alarming to start the inning. Ryan Slater got Ben Anderson to hit a soft foul ball down the left-field line, and Wyatt Langford made a sliding catch for out No. 1. Slater then jumped ahead of Cole Tate 1-2, and that’s when things started unraveling.
Slater ended up walking Tate. Still, that wasn’t the end of the world. It brought the potential tying run to the plate, but a groundball would now end the game.
Slater fought back from a 3-1 hole to strike out Corey Collins and put the Gators one out away from victory.
Then Slater completely missed his outside target and hit Connor Tate with a 1-0 fastball to put the tying run on base.
Sensing that Slater’s command was starting to elude him, coach Kevin O’Sullivan opted to bring in Purnell out of the bullpen to try to nail down the final out. Purnell entered the day with a 0.77 ERA. He had given up a run in just one of his previous 14 appearances, and that just so happened to be the eerily similar walk-off loss at Alabama two weeks ago.
Purnell only threw two pitches against Georgia (20-6, 4-3). His first one was lined just past third baseman Deric Fabian’s glove and into left field to cut the lead to 6-5 and put the winning run on base. His next pitch was a fastball right down the middle that McAllister crushed down the left-field line for the game-ending double.
“We had a walk and a hit by pitch,” O’Sullivan said. “That’s been kind of the theme of the year, walking too many guys and hitting too many guys. You’ve just got to throw strikes there. We struck out arguably their best hitter in Collins, and we’ve just got to execute a couple more pitches, and, obviously, the game could’ve went a different direction. Credit Georgia. They swung the bats well when they needed to there at the end.”
The shocking conclusion was fitting given the back-and-forth nature of the game.
UF starter Hunter Barco had trouble spotting his fastball all night, and the Bulldogs used an aggressive approach against him to rack up five hits in the first.
Anderson smashed Barco’s second pitch of the game over the wall in left field. Cole Tate followed by lining a 3-1 fastball hard to left. Langford tried to make a diving catch, but the ball landed underneath his glove and rolled to the wall for a triple. Collins hit a chopper into right field to make it 2-0.
Connor Tate lined an 0-2 pitch back up the middle to make it four consecutive hits to open the game for the Bulldogs.
Barco did a nice job of working through his command issues and limiting the damage. While he gave up one more hit in the inning, he struck out two batters and got a flyout to keep the deficit at 2-0.
“Getting out of the first with only two runs was big at that part of the game, and they could’ve opened it up a little bit more,” O’Sullivan said. “He just had trouble getting the ball down in the first couple innings. Hunter’s been great for us all year long, and it was just one of those starts where he had a little trouble getting the ball down.”
Georgia only scored one more run against Barco, but the third-year sophomore lefty never got into a groove. He hit a batter and walked one in the second but benefited from a double play to hang a zero.
The Gators tied the game in the top of the third. Colby Halter led off with a single to right center, and Jud Fabian drew a walk from Georgia starter Garrett Brown. With one out, Langford snuck a sharply hit grounder through the shifted left side of the infield to score Halter. BT Riopelle followed by hitting against the shift to score Fabian and tie the game at two.
Barco stranded a leadoff walk in the bottom of the inning thanks in large part to two strikeouts.
However, Georgia got to him again in the fourth when Parks Harber cranked a no-doubter to right-center field to give the Bulldogs a 3-2 lead.
Barco once again settled down after that blast and put up a zero in the fifth to end his night. He finished with three earned runs allowed on seven hits. He walked two and struck out six.
Prior to Thursday, he had given up more than four hits in a game just twice this season. He gave up five hits to the first six batters that he faced. He had given up just two home runs all season, and Georgia matched that.
This just quite simply wasn’t Barco’s night, but he still found a way to put his team in a decent position to win the game.
The Bulldogs tacked on another run in the sixth when Chaney Rogers sent Slater’s fifth pitch of the game over the wall in right center to make it 4-2.
The Gators, however, answered back. Deric Fabian drew a leadoff walk from Luke Wagner. Two batters later, Mac Guscette smashed his first career homer just past the glove of left fielder Connor Tate to tie the game at four.
That’s where the score stood until the ninth inning. Guscette laced a one-out single to left field off of Jaden Woods. After Halter struck out, Jud Fabian unloaded on a first-pitch fastball and sent it sailing over the trees in left-center field to give his team the lead.
Fabian was the hero of the night, and then, just like that, he became nothing more than a mere footnote on a frustrating and disappointing loss.
The Gators will look to even the series on Friday at 6.
“There’s nothing we can do,” O’Sullivan said. “It’s obviously a disappointing loss, and they’re all disappointing.
“We’ve got to bounce back [Friday] and be ready to play.”