First, it looked like the No. 10 Gators were going to get blown out on Thursday night at Kentucky.
Then the Gators rallied to tie the game in the seventh inning and seemed poised to grab the lead in the eighth. Instead, the Wildcats held them off and cashed in on an opportunity of their own in the bottom of the inning. They held on to defeat the Gators, 7-5, in a wacky and emotionally exhausting game to open a very important series.
Kentucky (27-15, 11-11 SEC) reliever Alex Degen opened the pivotal eighth inning by walking Jud Fabian. Kris Armstrong followed by grounding a single through the right side to put the Gators in business. With one out and Daniel Harper now on the mound for UK, Sterlin Thompson lofted a looping line drive in between the second baseman and the right fielder for a single that should’ve given Florida the lead given Fabian’s excellent speed.
Instead, Fabian made a poor read on the ball and broke back toward second base, anticipating a catch by second baseman Zeke Lewis. Because of his hesitation, third base coach Lars Davis held him at third.
Still, UF (31-14, 13-9) had the bases loaded with one out. All they had to do was hit a fly ball medium deep into the outfield, and Fabian would score with ease, right? Heck, even a slow chopper in the infield would’ve worked.
They never even made the Wildcats defend in a pressure-packed situation. Harper struck out Jordan Butler swinging and Josh Rivera looking at a full-count fastball right down the middle to flip the momentum back to his side.
Cam Hill led off the bottom of the inning by dropping down a bunt down the first baseline. Pitcher Trey Van Der Weide continued the Gators’ yearlong struggle with fielding bunts by muffing the ball and not getting a throw off. Van Der Weide threw a wild pitch to advance Hill to second with nobody out.
Chase Estep followed by lining a single into shallow left field. Jacob Young fielded the ball cleanly and fired a dart into Nathan Hickey’s glove to catch Hill at the plate for the first out. Estep took second on the throw home.
Coach Kevin O’Sullivan entrusted Jack Leftwich to get the final two outs of the inning and keep the game tied. Austin Schultz chopped a ball to Kirby McMullen at third base. McMullen airmailed the throw, which essentially gave the Wildcats four outs to work with in the inning. And that ended up being a costly error.
Leftwich struck out T.J. Collett on a nasty changeup for the second out but hung a 2-1 slider to John Rhodes. Rhodes lined it into center field for a two-run single that was the difference in the game.
Harper set the Gators down in order in the ninth to pick up the win.
The first three innings flew by, with both pitchers filling up the strike zone and the batters making a bunch of quick outs.
UF starter Franco Aleman gave up just two hits and struck out three batters in his first three innings. Kentucky’s Cole Stupp gave up just one hit in his first five innings.
UK opened the scoring in a big way in the bottom of the fourth. At first, Aleman just experienced some bad luck. Oraj Anu picked up a one-out single on a softly hit ball to left field. Ryan Ritter followed by chopping a pitch between Aleman and Butler. Both of them went for the ball, which left Butler having to race Ritter to the bag. He lost that race, and the Wildcats had two runners on.
Another softly hit single loaded the bases with one out.
Then Aleman seemed to lose his composure and let a bad situation completely unravel. He didn’t put out the fire like you expect from your game one starter.
Hill lined a pitch into right field to score two runs. A passed ball by Hickey scored another run and advanced Hill to second. Estep grounded out to Colby Halter at second for the second out of the inning, which moved Hill to third. Aleman hit Austin Schultz with a pitch, and Schultz stole second without a throw.
Aleman struck out Collett swinging, but the ball went past Hickey and near the backstop. Hickey’s long throw to first was off line, which allowed the fourth run of the inning to score, though Schultz was thrown out at the plate to end the inning.
Kentucky made the lead 5-0 when Ritter laced a two-out single to left center to score a run in the fifth.
Aleman was charged with 10 hits and four earned runs in a career-high six innings.
Florida used some small ball to scratch across a run in the sixth. Rivera led off with a double, advanced to third on a groundout and scored on Young’s sacrifice fly to right field.
Then the seventh inning came, and it looked like the Gators would pull off an incredible comeback. Fabian doubled off of Stupp to lead off. Armstrong singled back up the middle, and Fabian was smartly held at third. McMullen lined a first-pitch fastball into center field to cut the deficit to 5-2 and bring the tying run to the plate.
After back-to-back unproductive flyouts, Rivera worked his way back from a 1-2 hole to earn a walk that loaded the bases. Halter did the exact same thing to make it a 5-3 game.
Kentucky brought in Alex Degen out of the bullpen to face Young, and the move backfired. Young poked a 2-1 offering into right field to tie the game at five.
Van Der Weide entered in relief in the bottom of the inning and worked around a fielding error by Rivera to put up a zero and set the stage for the dramatic eighth inning.
Lewis led the Wildcats’ 14-hit attack with three knocks. Schultz, Rhodes, Ritter and Hill all had two hits.
Armstrong and Thompson turned in two-hit games for the Gators, while Young produced three RBI.
The Gators certainly had their chances on Thursday night. If Hickey blocks the third strike that would’ve ended the fourth inning, Fabian makes the correct read on the basepaths in the eighth, Butler and Rivera put the ball in play in the eighth, McMullen doesn’t commit his error or Leftwich doesn’t hang that slider to Rhodes, they probably win the game.
Instead, they lost the series opener for the second week in a row. They’ll try to duplicate what they did last week against Vanderbilt by bouncing back to win the series. Game two is Friday at 6:30.