Early on, No. 7 Florida’s game with North Florida on Tuesday night had all the makings of one of those sneaky midweek road games that the Gators seem to lose once or twice a year.
They stranded four runners on base in the first two innings and gave the Ospreys a run on an error with two outs. The game was tied at one entering the third inning. Jordan Butler gave the Gators the lead with an RBI single that scored Nathan Hickey.
And then freshman second baseman Colby Halter blew the game wide open.
With the bases loaded, two outs and Ospreys lefty reliever Eddie Miller facing the lefty Halter, it looked like the Gators would blow another scoring opportunity and let UNF hang around for a while longer. Then, Halter lined a 2-2 pitch into the right center field gap, and the ball rolled all the way to the wall. All three runners scored, and Halter slid into third with a triple.
Just like that, UF had a 5-1 lead. The Gators (2-2) cruised from there and defeated the Ospreys (1-3) 9-6.
Halter’s triple was the highlight of a very good night for the Jacksonville native. He went 3-for-5 with four RBI. One of the two outs he recorded was a fielder’s choice that brought in a run. Outside of an early error, he played solid defense at both second base and third base. He moved to third following an injury to Kirby McMullen.
One of the other significant offensive developments in the game was the re-emergence of center fielder Jud Fabian. Fabian entered the season with some projecting him to be a top-5 MLB Draft selection in June. He went a woeful 1-for-13 in the season-opening series against Miami with seven strikeouts. He went 2-for-6 with an RBI against the Ospreys. Two of his outs were hard hit line drives right at outfielders. His approach seemed much better after it looked like he tried to pull everything against the Hurricanes.
“I thought [Fabian’s] at bats were really good tonight,” UF coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “He got a hit in the six-hole and hit that one ball hard to center and hit another ball hard to right. Up and down the lineup, I thought Colby Halter obviously had a big base hit with the bases loaded. Sterlin Thompson continues to swing the bat really well. So, up and down the lineup, we’ve been productive.”
Florida also showed signs of improvement on the mound following a disastrous opening weekend that saw them walk 25 batters and hit five more. They walked just three batters and didn’t plunk anyone on Tuesday night. They gave up just two earned runs through the first eight innings.
However, O’Sullivan was still perturbed about some of recurring problems with his pitching staff. Jordan Butler walked the leadoff hitter in the sixth inning with only a two-run lead. After the offense added three runs to the margin in the top of the seventh, Ben Specht walked the leadoff man in the bottom of the frame.
“I can’t put my finger on why we’re walking people, especially to lead off innings,” O’Sullivan said. “We’ve got to learn to attack the leadoff hitter. We’ve got to eliminate the two-out walks, and we’ve got to find somebody that’s going to be able to finish the games. I think some of these guys are overthrowing a little bit. We’ve continued to preach execution certainly is more important than velocity, and I think that’s kind of where we’re at right now. We just need to find some guys that can locate just a little bit more towards the tail end of the game.”
The defense got off to a slow start once again, committing a pair of fielding errors in the first two innings that led to an unearned run.
And once again, the Gators limped to the finish line. Specht got lit up in the ninth inning to the tune of three runs and four hits. The Gators have given up at least three runs in the ninth inning in three of their four games now. That trend, obviously, needs to stop soon.
“We just did enough offensively,” O’Sullivan said. “We’ve still got to find somebody that’s going to close the game at the end. It got a little interesting there. Had a couple leadoff walks again after we had a comfortable lead. So, we’ve still got some things to work on, but the most important thing is we needed to get a win on the road here.”
It wasn’t pretty, but a win sure beats the feeling that the Gators experienced last weekend.