LSU blows out Gators to even series

Pitching depth behind ace Hunter Barco and relievers Blake Purnell and Nick Ficarrotta has been a major concern for the Gators over the past couple of weeks, and it was exposed again on Saturday night against No. 21 LSU.

Starter Brandon Sproat lasted only 2 1/3 innings and gave up six runs (five earned) on four hits. He was replaced by southpaw Timmy Manning, who proceeded to give up back-to-back home runs to dig the Gators into an 8-0 hole in the third inning.

The Tigers (16-7, 2-3 SEC) tacked on an unearned run off of Manning in the fifth and seven runs off of Karl Hartman and Carsten Finnvold in the ninth to run away with a series-evening 16-4 win over No. 8 Florida before a school-record crowd of 8,306 at Florida Ballpark.

“The game got away from us in a hurry,” UF coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “It’s really that simple. The fans were awesome. Just by eyeballing it, probably the biggest crowd we’ve ever had here. I was really looking forward to tonight. I felt really good going into the game. I honestly did, but credit LSU’s hitters. They did a nice job.”

It didn’t take long to realize that this wasn’t going to be Sproat’s night. He walked Cade Doughty to begin the game, and Tre’ Morgan blasted a homer just to the left of the UF bullpen in right-center field to grab a 2-0 lead.

The third inning began in similar fashion. Sproat walked Doughty, and Morgan made hard contact, this time lining a double into the left-center gap. A sacrifice fly to center by Dylan Crews scored one run, and an error by first baseman Kendrick Calilao on a groundball off the bat of Jacob Berry scored another run and made it 4-0.

A solid single through the left side by Jordan Thompson put two runners on base with just one out and ended Sproat’s night.

In came Manning, hoping to eat some innings and throw up some zeroes to give his offense a chance to come back.

Instead, things went from bad to worse really quickly. Brayden Jobert crushed a three-run shot to right field, and Gavin Dugas followed with a line drive homer to left to make it 8-0.

Manning put up a zero in the fourth before running into more trouble in the fifth. With one out, he hit Jobert with a pitch and then fell behind Dugas 1-0. That prompted O’Sullivan to go back to the bullpen and bring in Tyler Nesbitt.

A flyout and a walk put two runners on with two outs, and Nesbitt got Tyler McManus to hit a groundball to third. Deric Fabian booted it, which allowed an unearned run to score to make it 9-0.

“It is a bit frustrating,” O’Sullivan said. “We’ve got to find other guys, other starters, that we can win with other than Hunter. I think the most frustrating part is they’re certainly capable. We’ve all seen a few of these pitchers have a tremendous amount of success in certain spots and then, in other spots, not have the same success.”

On the other side, the Gators (17-6, 3-2) were completely shut down by LSU starter Ma’Khail Hilliard through five innings, managing just one hit and failing to score.

They put together a rally in the bottom of the sixth to temporarily make things interesting again. Deric Fabian atoned for his earlier defensive mistake by lining an opposite-field home run to right to leadoff the inning. After a single by Colby Halter, Sterlin Thompson launched a towering two-run shot to right field. A two-out RBI double by Calilao later in the inning cut the deficit to 9-4.

As it turned out, the Gators wouldn’t get another hit for the rest of the game. O’Sullivan said that the offensive struggles were largely a product of the poor pitching. It’s only human nature to take huge swings and try to do too much when you’re down by a bunch of runs.

“It’s hard to hit when you’re down that much that early, but I just felt like, if we could’ve kept it close and not given up six runs in the third, at some point, our offense would get going,” O’Sullivan said. “But, obviously, we weren’t able to do that in the third.”

Five Tigers turned in multi-hit games, led by Jordan Thompson’s 3-for-6 effort. Jobert went 2-for-4 with four RBI, while Morgan and Dugas each collected two hits and a pair of RBI. Crews only went 1-for-5, but he drove in four runs.

Sterlin Thompson was the only Gator with multiple hits and multiple RBI.

The Gators now face the much-easier-said-than-done task of flushing this ugly loss from their minds and finding a way to win the rubber game on Sunday at noon. With a win, the Gators will remain near the top of the SEC standings and likely position themselves for a boost in the next set of rankings. It will be as if Saturday never happened, and that’s the mindset that the Gators are trying to adopt.

“It’s over and done with now,” catcher BT Riopelle said. “After I leave this room, we’re going to pretty much flush it and move toward [Sunday]. All we can control now is how we prepare for [Sunday] morning – get a good night’s rest, wake up, be ready and bring the energy. We know what we’re capable of, and we’re excited to do it [on Sunday].”

Ethan Hughes
Ethan was born in Gainesville and has lived in the Starke, Florida, area his entire life. He played basketball for five years and knew he wanted to be a sportswriter when he was in middle school. He’s attended countless Gators athletic events since his early childhood, with baseball being his favorite sport to attend. He’s a proud 2019 graduate of the University of Florida and a 2017 graduate of Santa Fe College. He interned with the University Athletic Association’s communications department for 1 ½ years as a student and also wrote for InsideTheGators.com for two years before joining Gator Country in 2021. He is a long-suffering fan of the Jacksonville Jaguars. You can follow him on Twitter @ethanhughes97.