Game two between Florida and Kentucky was originally scheduled to begin at 6 on April 30 at Condron Ballpark. It didn’t end until shortly after midnight on the first day of May.
First pitch was pushed back 56 minutes due to a rain shower. Then, while the Gators were batting in the bottom of the fourth, action was paused for two hours and eight minutes due to a combination of heavy rain and lightning.
Fortunately for the Gators, the three hours and 15 minutes that featured baseball went their way in a lopsided fashion for the second day in a row. UF jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the second inning and cruised to a 9-1 win over the Wildcats and a much-needed series victory. They’ll return to the ballpark in less than 12 hours to play the finale on Sunday at noon.
“We’ve had plenty of rain delays here, especially later in the season,” coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “[We] just came in the clubhouse and watched some of the other games that were going on at the same time. It’s really the players that need to go out and play, and everyone has to stay ready to go.”
BT Riopelle led the offense by recording hits in his first three at bats and driving in three runs in the process. Sterlin Thompson and Josh Rivera each collected two of their team’s 11 hits, and Thompson drove in two runs.
UF (25-17, 8-12 SEC) starting pitcher Brandon Neely was fantastic for the third week in a row, keeping the Wildcats off of the scoreboard and out of the hit column during his four innings of work while striking out four batters. His night was ended prematurely after just 54 pitches due to the long delay in the bottom of the fourth.
“I felt Brandon really settled in after the second inning,” O’Sullivan said. “He had some deep counts and had a little trouble getting the ball down the first couple of innings, but he’s been really good again. It’s unfortunate that we had the rain. I thought he was starting to get into a rhythm at that point.”
Tyler Nesbitt, Blake Purnell and Nick Ficarrotta combined to toss the final five innings. They gave up just one run and struck out eight batters.
Daniel Harris (3-for-5) and Ryan Ritter (2-for-3) combined for five of Kentucky’s seven hits. Their bullpen also did a decent job after the delay, as they held the Gators to just two runs on five hits over the final 4 2/3 innings.
For the second game in a row, Wyatt Langford ignited the Gators’ offense right away with a leadoff triple into the right-center field gap off of Zack Lee in the bottom of the first. He came in to score when Thompson hit a groundball to second. Harris’ throw pulled first baseman Jacob Plastiak off of the bag, which allowed Thompson to be safe at first as well.
Jud Fabian lined the first pitch that he saw into the left-field corner to score Thompson, and Riopelle made it 3-0 with an RBI single into right.
UF stayed hot in the second inning. Rivera led off by lining a 1-0 pitch just over the wall in straightaway center for his sixth long ball of the year. Lee then hit Deric Fabian with a pitch with one out, and he stole second base with two outs. Thompson lined a pitch the opposite way into the left-center gap to score Fabian.
A wild pitch and a walk to Jud Fabian put runners on the corners with two outs. Fabian stole second base, and Riopelle greeted reliever Ryan Hagenow with a two-run single to right to make it 7-0.
That was all of the scoring before the rain fell again in the bottom of the fourth.
Nesbitt allowed the first two batters to reach base in the fifth, but he wiggled out of the jam with two flyouts and a strikeout.
UF’s offense tacked on another run in the bottom of the frame. A single by Riopelle and two walks by Magdiel Cotto loaded the bases with one out. Colby Halter, who had been struck in an 0-for-18 slump and dropped to eighth in the lineup after leading off in every game that he’d played in prior to this weekend, laid down a perfectly placed bunt down the third-base line for an RBI single that made it 8-0.
The Wildcats (23-20, 6-14) got to Nesbitt for their only run of the game in the following half inning. A single by Harris and a hit batter put two runners on with two outs and resulted in Purnell entering out of the bullpen. Ritter lined his first pitch into the left-field corner to plate a run.
Purnell escaped that inning by striking out Devin Burkes and then recorded the first two outs of the seventh. Ficarrotta entered after a walk to Plastiak and a single by Harris. He struck out Hunter Jump to end the inning.
Jac Caglianone completed the scoring in the bottom of the seventh by launching an opposite-field homer into the bullpen in left-center field.
“I think we have swung the bats pretty good the entire year, but I think moving Wyatt to the top of the order has changed some things,” O’Sullivan said. “Moving Sterlin to two and Jud to three and BT to four and Jac up to the six spot has helped us. We’ve been getting a lot of production out of the bottom of the order.”
The Gators will try to get as much sleep as they can given the short turnaround and turn in another dominant performance on Sunday. A sweep would put them in excellent position to make the NCAA Tournament with three weeks left in the regular season and would keep alive their slim hopes of hosting a regional.