Tuesday night’s game between Florida and Stetson at Florida Ballpark had the feel of one of those classic midweek letdown games.
The Gators were only a couple of days removed from a hard-fought series at Vanderbilt, and they’ve got a huge series against No. 1 Tennessee at home this weekend.
Through 2 ½ innings, the Hatters led 4-0. The Gators were struggling to get outs on the mound and had stranded three runners on the basepaths.
Then, the Gators sprang to life and outscored Stetson 10-4 the rest of the way to win the game 10-8.
“Our whole focus was on tonight,” coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “I think it’s a really positive thing for our team to be able to play from behind. You’ve seen enough midweek games where they kind of get away from you, and you kind of overlook them. So, I was really pleased with how we battled back.
“It’s hard to come back in a game when you’re down four that early without having a sense of urgency. I thought they stayed in the game. They were engaged. The dugout was good. There have been games in the past where we’ve fell behind and kind of slept-walked through it.”
Sterlin Thompson paced the UF offense by going 3-for-5 with two RBI, while Jud Fabian, Wyatt Langford and Josh Rivera collected two hits apiece. Langford drove in a team-high four runs.
Nick Ficarrotta was credited with the win after giving up two earned runs in three innings in relief, and Blake Purnell gave up one run in the ninth en route to picking up his fourth save.
Brandon Hylton led the charge for the Hatters by going 2-for-5 with five RBI, the most by a Hatter in a game this season.
Stetson (18-18, 5-10 ASUN) opened the scoring in the top of the first against freshman Karl Hartman, who made his first career start. Cameron Hill and Nick DiPonzio singled, and Hylton plated Hill by grounding into a double play.
Hartman put up a zero in the second before hitting Hill with a pitch and giving up a single to DiPonzio to lead off the third. That ended his night, as Ficarrotta entered out of the bullpen.
Hylton destroyed a 1-1 offering from Ficarrotta for an opposite-field homer to right to extend the Hatters’ lead to 4-0.
The Gators (23-14, 6-9 SEC) cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the frame against Jonathan Gonzalez. Colby Halter led off with a bloop double down the left-field line, and he advanced on Jud Fabian’s flyout to deep center field. Thompson brought him home with a single to right. A groundout by Langford advanced Thompson into scoring position with two outs, and BT Riopelle hit a first-pitch single through the right side to score Thompson and make it a 4-2 game.
“We got the guys together, and we talked about box adjustments we had to make, especially coming from Vandy this weekend to playing Stetson here,” Rivera said. “That doesn’t take anything away from Stetson. We know they’ve got a lot of talented guys on that team. We just know that they play a different game than some of the teams in the SEC. They slow the ball down a lot more. We just had to adjust midgame.”
Stetson got one of those runs back immediately in the fourth. Juan Correa smoked a double into the right-field corner, and Kyle Ball followed with a groundball that snuck into right field for a hit. Two batters later, Hill lofted a sacrifice fly to center to make it 5-2.
UF exploded in the bottom of the inning to take a lead that they never relinquished. Rivera greeted reliever Anthony DeFabbia by hitting a flyball to right on his second pitch. The ball initially looked like it would stay in play, but it carried just over the wall for a home run.
“I thought I got a good piece of bat on it,” Rivera said. “I didn’t think I hit it the best, but, when I rounded first base, I was just trying to see where the outfielder was going just to see if I could make up my decision if I was going to try to go to third, and, fortunately enough, I just saw him stop right at the wall. I didn’t see where it landed, but I just knew it was gone from the roar of the crowd.”
DeFabbia bounced back to retire the next two Gators before walking Halter and plunking Jud Fabian with a pitch. Thompson then took a 2-2 pitch the opposite way and lined an RBI single into left-center field.
Stetson went back to the bullpen and brought in Rasesh Pandya to face Langford. Unfortunately for Pandya, he suffered a similar fate as DeFabbia. Langford smashed a three-run home run off of the left-field foul pole to give the Gators a 7-5 advantage.
Langford tacked on another run in the sixth via a sacrifice fly to make it 8-5.
The Hatters made things a little dicey for the Gators in the seventh.
With a runner on first and two outs, O’Sullivan opted to pull Nick Pogue after 1 2/3 innings and bring in Philip Abner for a left-on-left matchup with Hylton.
It didn’t work out like O’Sullivan had hoped. Hylton hit Abner’s 1-1 pitch deep into the left-center field gap. Fabian got to the ball in time but couldn’t hold on as he slammed into the wall. A run scored on the double to make it 8-6. Two batters later, Yohann Dessureault made it a one-run game by hitting an RBI single in front of Langford in left.
With the potential tying run now at second base and two outs, Anthony Ursitti came in for just his seventh appearance this season. He fell behind Daniel Labrador 2-0 but battled back to strike him out and preserve the lead.
Fabian provided a couple of insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth when he lined a pitch from Bret Neilan onto the left-field berm for a two-run shot that made it 10-7. The blast was the 48th of Fabian’s career, which moved him past No. 3 overall MLB Draft pick Mike Zunino for the fifth-most in program history.
“It’s special to pass a guy like Zunino on the board,” Fabian said. “It’s always special. I didn’t even think it was going to get over.”
Fabian’s homer ended up being significant because the Hatters scored a run against Purnell in the ninth to make the final margin only two runs.
The Gators will now prepare for their biggest challenge all season. The Volunteers set a new SEC record by winning their first 12 conference games this season, and they lead the league in batting average, home runs, runs scored, team ERA and strikeouts. They lead a couple of those categories by unthinkably large margins.
“They’re an older lineup,” O’Sullivan said. “They can run. They’ve got power. They play defense. They’ve got a few guys in the lineup that can run. They’ve got a very talented weekend rotation. They’ve got really good matchups right and left [in the bullpen].”
As if the Tennessee series wouldn’t have been difficult enough already, the Gators may have to play without their ace, as Hunter Barco exited his start against Vanderbilt after just two innings. O’Sullivan said that he’ll consult with the medical personnel on Wednesday and make a decision on Barco’s availability. O’Sullivan has yet to state what exactly the issue is, but Barco pointed at his left forearm while walking into the dugout against the Commodores.
Barco or no Barco, the Gators are excited for the opportunity to take down the nation’s top team.
“They don’t like us; we don’t like them,” Fabian said. “So, I think it should be a competitive series.”