The Florida Gators were down to their final strike in the top of the ninth inning. Four walks and a wild pitch later they held a 6-4 lead and sent Michael Byrne to the mound in the ninth inning. Byrne picked up his SEC best ninth save of the season as the Gators found a way to come back and take the opening game against Georgia.
The Gators (28-13/11-8 SEC) cruised through the first half of the game playing the SEC East cellar dweller Bulldogs (17-26/5-14 SEC). Alex Faedo, despite not having his best command, gave up just a pair of hits through the first two innings before settling in.
Meanwhile the Gators’ bats gave Faedo a cushion to work with. JJ Schwarz led of the second with a walk and moved to third when Christian Hicks (3-4) doubled to right field. After a strikeout Blake Reese singled to score both Schwarz and Hicks. Florida added another run in the third inning when Hicks singled home Nelson Maldonado.
Faedo retired nine in a row after the two-out single he allowed in the second. He worked around the single in the fifth and a leadoff single in the sixth to head into the seventh leading 3-0.
The seventh wasn’t kind to Faedo or the Gators. Mitchell Webb doubled with one out to get the Georgia rally going. Faedo issued a walk to LJ Talley and Will Proctor’s double cut into Florida’s lead, 3-1, while also leaving two in scoring position. Kevin O’Sullivan went to the bullpen, calling on Nick Horvath, but the lefty didn’t fare much better. Horvath got Tucker Maxwell to groundout but Talley scored and Tucker Bradley’s double tied the game at 3. O’Sullivan went back to his bullpen, calling on freshman Garrett Milchin. Cam Shepherd had a rude welcome for Milchin, singling up the middle to give Georgia a 4-3 lead.
Florida singled in the eight but couldn’t get a runner into scoring position. That led to the ninth inning where the Gators were down to their last strike before Georgia imploded.
Deacon Liput struck out to start the final frame but Dalton Guthrie gave Florida momentum with a single. Austin Langworthy worked a walk and Georgia went to the bullpen, bringing in Shaefer Shepard, who got Ryan Larson to fly out to right field. Guthrie advanced to third on the fly out.
Nelson Maldonado fell behind 1-2, but worked his way back to draw a walk, sending last Sunday’s hero, JJ Schwarz, to the plate with the bases loaded. Shepard threw a fastball well in front of the plate that whizzed by Michael Curry and allowed Guthrie to score to tie the game. Schwarz would draw a walk to re-load the bases and Hicks did the same to give Florida a 5-4 lead. After a pitching change Mark Kolozsvary drew another bases loaded walk to give UF a two-run lead heading into the bottom of the ninth.
Byrne came out of the bullpen and worked around a leadoff walk to earn his ninth save of the season. Byrne is just five saves away from breaking the school record set by Shaun Anderson in 2016.
Florida and Georgia will play Saturday at 2 pm in Athens.