The Gators’ team-wide slump continued on Thursday night in the series opener against No. 2 Arkansas.
The offense generated just one run on three hits. The pitching staff fell apart in the ninth inning after doing a pretty good job for most of the game.
The result was an all too familiar one for the Gators – a blowout loss. The Razorbacks won the game, 8-1, and in doing so dealt UF (19-11, 3-7 SEC) its sixth consecutive loss in SEC play.
“We had two [hit batters] again to lead off innings, and they both end up scoring,” UF coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “We hit another guy on a 1-2 count. Four-straight innings, the leadoff man got on. It seems like the same thing. It’s all phases. It’s the pitching side of things.
“Offensively, we didn’t do anything tonight. We tried to get some momentum. [Tyler] Nesbitt comes in and does a great job again with bases loaded [in the sixth], and then we go down 1-2-3, and we’ve got no momentum. He showed some excitement on the mound. We get a double play to end the inning, and, same thing, we got nothing going offensively.”
Florida’s offense actually got off to an encouraging start. Colby Halter led off the bottom of the first with a line-drive single into right field off of Connor Noland.
Unfortunately, that would be their last hit for a very long time. They went 0 for their next 21 until Kendrick Calilao lined a one-out single to left in the eighth against reliever Zebulon Vermillion.
“We’ve got to put runs on the board early and put some pressure on them,” catcher BT Riopelle said. “I felt the entire game [that] the pressure was kind of on us to do something good. We almost seemed as if we were waiting for something bad to happen instead of putting the pressure on them and putting some runs on the board.”
Their only real threat in the first seven innings came when Jud Fabian drew a one-out walk and stole second with two outs in the fourth. Wyatt Langford struck out swinging to keep them off of the scoreboard.
“We had a really good idea of what [Noland] was going to do – throw a cut fastball in on lefties and away to righties and throw that breaking ball a bunch,” O’Sullivan said. “He did exactly that. We really concentrated this week on staying in the middle of the field in [batting practice]. We’ve got the iPitch machine to simulate the breaking ball. We didn’t see anything that we weren’t expecting.
“When you get three hits on the night, it’s just really the approach. We’re pulling a lot of balls, right-handers into their dugout, lefties pulling balls foul. We worked awfully hard this week on staying in the middle of the field, and, for whatever reason, we weren’t able to do that tonight.”
Meanwhile, UF starter Hunter Barco made quick work of the Razorbacks (23-5, 8-2) through three innings, retiring all nine batters that he faced with relative ease.
Then some uncharacteristic wildness by Barco and some misfortune allowed Arkansas to score a single run in three consecutive innings to go up 3-0.
A hit by pitch and a walk put two runners on with one out in the fourth. Barco struck out Chris Lanzilli swinging for the second out, but both runners stole their way into scoring position on the play.
Still, it looked like Barco was going to escape the jam when he got Michael Turner to hit a softly hit blooper just past the mound. However, the runner at second, Robert Moore, ran into third baseman Deric Fabian, which took Fabian out of the play. Shortstop Josh Rivera was playing back near the outfield grass and couldn’t get there in time. The ball landed between Barco and Rivera for a rare bloop RBI single that didn’t even make it to the infield dirt.
O’Sullivan passionately argued for a runner interference call for the contact with Fabian. The umpires discussed it as a group but ultimately decided not to call it.
Another hit batter and a sacrifice bunt put a runner in scoring position in the fifth. Cayden Wallace hit a blooper that landed in shallow right-center field to make it 2-0.
A leadoff home run by Lanzilli in the sixth made it 3-0, and Turner lined a single back up the middle. Barco walked Jalen Battles to end his night.
To their credit, UF relievers Nesbitt, Blake Purnell and Philip Abner worked in and out of trouble to pitch three scoreless innings. After eight innings, the Razorbacks had three runs on seven hits.
Their strong performances on the mound gave the Gators one last chance to get back into the game in the eighth. After Calilao’s single, Rivera walked to bring the potential tying run to the plate in the form of pinch hitter Kris Armstrong.
Armstrong popped out to second, and Deric Fabian flied out to right to end the threat.
The Razorbacks struck for five runs off of Nick Ficarrotta in the ninth – including back-to-back homers by Wallace and Braydon Webb – to put the game far out of reach.
“I felt like if we had kept it to a three-run game, anything can happen, but we let it get away from us again,” O’Sullivan said. “It’s like a chain; everybody’s got to do their job. Until we get to that point, we’re going to continue to struggle.”
The Gators were able to avoid getting shut out for the first time this season. Halter led off the ninth with a double, advanced to third on a balk by Vermillion and scored on Sterlin Thompson’s groundout to first.
UF will try to snap their long losing streak against league foes and even the series in game two on Friday at 6:30.
“I think with every team in baseball, you kind of have that point in the season where you’re scuffling a little bit,” Riopelle said. “You’ve got to kind of find your way to get over that hump. We played really well at the start, and we’re scuffling a little bit right now. We’ve just got to get over that hump and play our best baseball at the end of the year.”