Zunino’s hit seals UF’s comeback win

After 27 come-from-behind victories last season, the Gators only waited until game three of 2010 to show their come-from-behind ability wasn’t a thing of the past.

Freshman catcher Mike Zunino’s 10th-inning single scored Tyler Thompson to give the Gators a 7-6 comeback win that looked highly improbable in the ninth when they were trailing 6-3.

Zunino’s single will look like a line drive in the box score, but it was actually a blooper into right field off the end of his bat. He knew the pitch that was coming, and admits he got too excited to swing.

“Coach told me I was probably going to get a fastball because [USF pitcher Kevin Quackenbush] couldn’t throw the curveball for a strike,” Zunino said. “He told me to cheat a little bit, and I think I might have cheated a little too much and cut it off the end [of the bat]. It’s what I needed.”

It ended a weekend of frustration for Zunino, who hit the ball harder than a .200 average would indicate. He lined out to deep center field on Friday night and reached on an error by the right fielder after he dropped a line drive Zunino smoked.

The way it worked out was consistent with an old adage the Florida coaches have been telling him. Whenever he would softly hit a ball into the shorter part of the outfield during batting practice, the Florida coaches would jokingly say, “That’s a game winner!”

Zunino always shakes his head in frustration when he fails to hit a pitch in batting practice with authority. Now he’ll think twice when he hears it in the future.

“That’s the most frustrating part about baseball,” Zunino said. “You hit balls hard but right to people, but then when you need a hit, it’s always the one that’s not hit that hardest that falls in. It’s one of those where you take it.”

Early in the game, it looked as if the Gators would cruise to a victory. They were up 3-1 after the seventh inning behind a pitching staff that had only given up three earned runs in 25 innings at that point.

In the seventh inning, the Gators had the bases loaded with no outs and came away empty-handed and momentum swung back to the USF dugout. Disaster struck for the Gators in the top of the eighth.

Nick Maronde, who got Jeff Barfield out of a jam in the top of the seventh, promptly got himself into a jam in the eighth. A leadoff infield single by Junior Carlin, a walk to Sam Mende and a double down the left field line by Stephen Hunt brought one run home.

That brought in Greg Larson to relieve Maronde.  Jonathan Koscso greeted Larson with a chopper into the hard ground in front of home plate that by the time it came back down, Kosco was on first and the tying run had scored. Sean Buckley followed with the first hit of his career, a run-scoring double off the left field wall that plated another run.

That brought in Justin Poovey in relief of Larson. Jimmy Falla hit a sacrifice fly to right to give the Bulls a 6-3 lead but Poovey got the Gators out of the inning without further damage.

When the Gators came off the field in the eighth, they held a meeting in front of their dugout.

“We got them together after we gave up the five-spot in the eighth, and said, ‘we’ve got six outs to go,’” Florida head coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “Our program is built on that. We’ve had a lot of come-from-behind victories in the past few years. This is only going to help us down the road. You can’t simulate this in practice.”

Although the Gators didn’t chip away at the score in their half of the eighth, Poovey gave another solid effort in the ninth when the Gators came back to tie the game and then delivered two outs in the tenth before Alex Panteliodis came on to get a strikeout for the final out of the game.

“The key to the game was Justin Poovey coming in there in the eighth inning and settling things down,” O’Sullivan said.

The comeback wasn’t going to be easy in the ninth. Lefty Teddy Kaufman, who had set the Gators down 1-2-3 in the eighth, came back out and he got the first man he faced.

The rally began when Hampton Tignor worked a long at-bat for a one-out walk. Kamm Washington then lined a single off the pitcher’s leg and into left field, moving Tignor to second and Nolan Fontana grounded a single into right field to load the bases.

USF made a pitching change to bring on closer Kevin Quackenbush and it looked like he was going to snuff out the Florida rally when he struck Zunino out but Matt den Dekker followed with a single on an 0-2 count to right that drove in two runs, cutting the USF lead to 6-5.

“I tried to stick to the two-strike approach we work with,” den Dekker said. “I tried to put the ball in play somewhere and find a hole, and luckily it worked out.”

After Josh Adams walked to reload the bases, Preston Tucker reached on a fielding error by the shortstop that tied the game. Austin Maddox struck out swinging to end the inning, but the Gators had already forced extra innings.

den Dekker’s ability to keep the inning alive shouldn’t go unnoticed. He is currently riding a 12-game hitting streak that carries over from last season, one game off his career best. He exits the first weekend with the second highest batting average on the team at .462 and has worked long counts in the leadoff spot of the batting order. This allows his teammates who hit behind him to see the off-speed pitches they will be facing before even stepping up to the plate.

“I’m awfully proud of him,” O’Sullivan said. “Defensively alone, he’s been unbelievable. He had a great weekend and has worked awfully hard.”

den Dekker’s offensive weekend has been a relief for the Gators, but it’s another left-handed hitting outfielder that has created quite a buzz. Washington didn’t play Friday night, but he combined to go 4-7 (.571) with a home run in the Saturday and Sunday games.

Anthony DeSclafani got the start on the mound for the Gators and worked 4-1/3 scoreless innings. The sophomore right-hander allowed only four hits and recorded four strikeouts. O’Sullivan felt that he could have pitched longer, but they stuck to the strict pitch count of 70 early in the season.

“I really only worked with two pitches today, fastball and curveball,” DeSclafani said. “They couldn’t really catch up to my fastball. The defense played great.”

Florida starting pitchers Tommy Toledo, Brian Johnson and DeSclafani combined to throw 13-1/3 innings this weekend without allowing an earned run. The trio also recorded eleven strikeouts and allowed only ten hits. They combined for only two walks and both were issues by Toledo, who struggled with some of his command during his first start back in 16 months.

DeSclafani was in a bit of trouble with one out in the fifth inning when he was pulled. He allowed back-to-back singles with one out that set the table for USF center fielder Ryan Lockwood.

O’Sullivan brought Kevin Chapman out of the bullpen for the second straight day to get the left-on-left matchup to his advantage. Chapman threw seven pitches and induced a ground ball back to him that he threw to second base to start a double play and get out of the jam.

“That was awesome,” DeSclafani said. “I went up to him and gave him a big high-five. I was relieved after that. I was real pumped.”

Freshman left-hander Steven Rodriguez made his college debut by striking out two in one inning of work.

The Gators originally took a 3-0 lead in the first inning when Daniel Pigott recorded two RBI after beating out an infield single to first base. USF starting pitcher Andrew Barbosa was late to cover first base on the ground ball, and Pigott beat him to the bag. Adams was on second base to start the play, and he scored after running the entire time and taking advantage of Barbosa’s mental error.

After that first inning, Barbosa settled in. He used his big breaking ball to keep the left-handed hitters off-balance, and his change-up kept the right-handed hitters honest. Though the 6-8 left-hander only threw in the mid-80s, his off-speed pitches were effective enough to make his fastball look faster.

“I knew going into the season that it would be one of our biggest challenges, lefties that have good change-ups,” O’Sullivan said. “We’ve got five lefties that throw the ball hard, but we don’t have anybody to simulate 85-86 (mph) with a good change-up. That was good for us. I’m sure we’ll see more of them as the season goes on.”

Alex Panteliodis got the final out of the tenth inning by striking out Lockwood on four pitches. Getting that out made Panteliodis the winning pitcher, making him 2-0 after getting the win in Friday night’s game.

The Gators are back in action on Wednesday night at 6:30 p.m. against UCF, which starts a stretch in which Florida plays five straight days. Freshman right-hander Hudson Randall will get the start for the Gators, after working 1-1/3 scoreless during Saturday’s victory.