On Friday night, Miami took advantage of a handful of sloppy defensive plays by Florida to win the series opener. On Saturday, the script was flipped.
The Hurricanes made at least one crucial defensive mistake in all three innings that the Gators scored in, including three errors.
Meanwhile, the Gators’ duo of Brandon Sproat and Nick Ficarrotta combined to limit Miami to just six hits and a 1-for-8 showing with runners in scoring position.
The combination of clutch pitching and opportunistic offense was enough for the No. 14 Gators to even the series with the No. 22 Hurricanes by a score of 8-1 at Mark Light Field. The rubber match will be at noon on Sunday.
“Going on the road for the first time is a learning experience,” UF coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “I think the game may have just sped up on us a little bit last night, but I’ll tell you, when they left here last night, they were in a good spot.
“We went to breakfast this morning, they were loose. This is not easy. The place is sold out. It’s a rivalry game, and we saw two really good starters, as good as we’re going to see all year.”
Sproat, making his first career weekend start, fired a career-high 6 1/3 innings and tied a career-high with eight strikeouts. He didn’t give up a run and surrendered just four hits and two walks, the latter of which came back-to-back in the third inning.
“Brandon Sproat was awesome,” O’Sullivan said. “He was great, and that’s three times in a row. Hopefully, this is going to jumpstart him into having a really good year for us.
“I was with the USA [Collegiate National Team], and I’ve seen it, so I know it’s in there. And then the start against UNF in a midweek game, he went five innings, I was like, ‘That’s what it looked like.’ And then he started for two innings on Tuesday, and there it was again, so I was very comfortable with him starting tonight.
“I would have been very surprised if he did not throw well. Not meaning he was going to win, but the way he competed and the way he threw the ball was exactly what I had seen over the summer. So, hopefully, this start should give him a ton of confidence moving forward.”
Ficarrotta, a third-year freshman walk-on, pitched the final 2 2/3 innings. He gave up the only run of the game but also struck out five batters and wiggled out of a couple of big-time jams.
Miami’s Karson Ligon also had a terrific night, giving up just one earned run on three hits in seven innings. However, his defense let him down and allowed two unearned runs to cross the plate, which made Ligon a touch-luck loser.
UF (9-3) got the scoring started just minutes into the game. Colby Halter led off with a line drive to deep right-center field. Right fielder Lorenzo Carrier seemed to be uncertain of how close he was to the outfield wall, which led to the ball deflecting off of his glove for a double.
During the following at bat with Jud Fabian, Ligon threw a pitch in the dirt that got away from catcher Maxwell Romero. Halter took off for third, but a good throw probably would’ve gotten him out. Instead, Romero’s throw sailed down the left-field line, which allowed Halter to score after the Hurricanes had two opportunities to get him out.
Ligon set the Gators down in order in the second, and it looked like he was going to do the same thing in the third. He struck out Halter swinging for what should’ve been the final out. Instead, the ball got away from Romero. By the time he figured out where the ball was, it was too late. Halter easily beat his throw to first.
Two pitches later, Jud Fabian made him pay for that mistake when he sent a scorching line drive over the left-field wall to make it 3-0.
The fourth through eighth innings were basically a game of survival for Florida. They only notched one hit during those five innings, and that hit was an infield chopper by Deric Fabian that was a product of good fortune more than anything else.
“We’ll watch the game tonight, but I think we gave away some innings offensively, too,” O’Sullivan said. “Credit their starting pitcher; he did a really nice job of slowing the ball down, and we jumped on some fastballs.”
The Hurricanes (8-2), meanwhile, put two runners on base in the fifth when Dominic Pitelli and Edgardo Villegas singled with one out.
Sproat escaped the inning by getting first baseman CJ Kayfus to fly out to center and Jacob Burke to line out to first. On the latter play, Kendrick Calilao made a terrific leaping grab to keep at least one run from scoring and possibly two.
Ficarrotta replaced Sproat with a runner on first and one out in the seventh. It took him just four pitches to throw up a zero, as he got Pitelli to fly out on his first pitch and then struck out Villegas on three pitches.
The bottom of the eighth proved to be the deciding moment in the game. Kayfus led off the inning with a single up the middle and advanced to second on a passed ball by BT Riopelle with one out. Yohandy Morales singled up the middle to score Kayfus and make it a 3-1 game.
Another passed ball by Riopelle moved Morales into scoring position and got the sellout crowd back into the game.
Ficarrotta fell behind Romero 3-1, and you got the sense that maybe the magnitude of the situation was starting to rattle Ficarrotta.
That idea proved to be false. Ficarrotta battled back to strike out both Romero and Carlos Perez to end the inning and keep the Gators’ fragile lead intact.
Then UF’s offense sprang to life in the top of the ninth and removed any doubt about the outcome of the game.
Jud Fabian drew a leadoff walk from Anthony Arguelles, which prompted Matt Raudelunas to take the mound for a left-on-left matchup with Sterlin Thompson.
The Hurricanes got exactly what they wanted in this situation – a groundball to second. However, the ball was hit so softly that they had no chance to turn two. So, second baseman Dorian Gonzalez tried to zip a throw to second to get the lead out. His throw pulled Pitelli off the bag and allowed both runners to be safe.
A sacrifice bunt by Wyatt Langford moved both runners into scoring position, and Riopelle lined a single to right to score one run.
Josh Rivera greeted new pitcher Alejandro Torres with a safety squeeze bunt in front of the plate. Kayfus’ only play was at the plate, but Thompson just beat the throw to make it 5-1.
“We made an emphasis on [small ball],” O’Sullivan said. “We have to have the ability to score runs different ways. Obviously, I think we’re a really good offensive team, but, when you face really good pitchers – and tonight was that example and [Friday’s] another example – you’ve got to be able to do different things.
“Just to tack on that fifth run to put us up four is really big so you put yourself in a position that, even if they run into a ball with the bases loaded, it’s still a tie ballgame. So, getting that fifth run was really important, especially at that point of the game.”
Then, just for good measure, Calilao launched a hanging breaking ball well beyond the left-field wall to give the Gators a seven-run cushion.
Ficarrotta set the Hurricanes down in order in the bottom of the inning to end the game.
It wasn’t a pretty night for the Gators offensively, as they recorded just six hits and struck out 12 times, but they took advantage of the opportunities that Miami gave them. That was good enough to give them the chance to win the series on Sunday.
“To come down here after losing a tough game [on Friday] and to play a really clean game, I’m really pleased with how we came out mentally, and I know they feel good about themselves,” O’Sullivan said. “Obviously, [Sunday’s] not going to be easy, but now we’ve put ourselves in position to hopefully win the series.”