Florida Unable to Overcome Early Deficit in Game Two Loss to Liberty
The Gator bullpen provided six quality innings of relief with just two runs allowed on one hit, but Florida was unable to come back from an early four-run deficit.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – No. 9 Florida (1-1) fell behind early to Liberty (1-1) with a chance to claim the series on Saturday, dropping game two to the Flames, 7-2, in front of a crowd of 6,350 fans at Florida Ballpark.
Liberty struck first in game two, plating a pair of runs in the first inning. With the bases loaded, Cameron Foster was hit by a pitch to bring in Aaron Anderson, followed by an RBI single to right field off the bat of Logan Mathieu.
After a clean inning from starting pitcher Timmy Manning in the second, Liberty responded for two more runs in the third via a Cameron Foster sacrifice fly and an RBI single by Derek Orndorff.
Down 4-0 entering the bottom half of the third, the Florida bats started to come alive. BT Riopelle and Deric Fabian reached via a hit-by-pitch and walk to open the frame, allowing Colby Halter to bring in Riopelle with an RBI double down the right field line.
With the deficit trimmed to 4-1, the Gators received a clean inning from reliever Brandon Sproat in the fourth. That opened the gates for a big inning from the Orange and Blue, beginning with a bases-loaded walk in the bottom half by D. Fabian. With the bases still loaded, Jud Fabian stepped to the dish and delivered a two-run double to right-center field, bringing home D. Fabian and Riopelle to make it a tie ballgame.
The newfound stalemate proved to be short lived, as Liberty regained the advantage in the fifth with an RBI double from Foster. From there, freshman right-handed Karl Hartman took over on the mound for Florida in his collegiate debut. Hartman worked a scoreless sixth inning, registering the first strikeout of his career in the process.
Hartman returned to the hill in the seventh and produced another shutout frame for the Orange & Blue to finish with two scoreless innings of relief. Following his exit in the eighth, the Flames tacked on another run via a sacrifice fly to left field by Stephen Hill, making it 6-4 in favor of Liberty.
After right-hander Blake Purnell held the Flames in check in the ninth, the Gators brought the tying run to the plate in the bottom half. In the end, Florida was unable to push a run across as Liberty reliever Cade Hungate nailed down the save.
Manning received the loss, pitching three innings with four earned runs allowed on five hits and two walks. The sophomore hurler struck out four in the defeat.
Liberty starting pitcher Trey Gibson ended up with the no-decision, while relief pitcher David Erickson earned the victory after firing 1.2 innings of shutout baseball.
J. Fabian paced the Gators with two RBI in Saturday’s defeat.
NOTABLES
* Florida Ballpark welcomed a crowd of 6,350 fans on Saturday after drawing a program-record 6,463 fans on opening night.
* The Gators fall to 22-4 in season-opening series since 2014.
* Under head coach Kevin O’Sullivan, Florida is now 38-6 in season-opening series during his tenure.
* Riopelle, Hartman, freshman Brandon Neely and Purnell all made their Florida debuts on Saturday, with the latter three players all appearing in their first collegiate games.
* After combining for 14 strikeouts on opening night, the Gators pitching staff recorded 11 strikeouts in game two to bring their series total to 25.
* The Florida bullpen combined for six innings of work, allowing just two earned runs on one hit.
FROM HEAD COACH KEVIN O’SULLIVAN
On Timmy Manning’s first weekend start…
“I thought the leadoff hitter hit a pretty good pitch. It was down and he hit it back up the middle and through a flair into short right. They had a couple runners on to start the game, had a little momentum. I thought he did a nice job of damage control, only gave up two. Had to make some pitches. I think the two things that stick out about his start are he gave up two 0-2 hits with runners in scoring position. Obviously, you have to execute pitches when you’re up in the count like that. The lead-off walk in the third kind of put him in a tough spot.”
On Brandon Sproat’s performance in relief…
“I thought he came in and did a nice job. We scored three to tie the game at four and then we walked the lead-off man in the fourth. I think, as a staff, we had eleven free passes today. We are fortunate the game was a two-run game at the end. We still had the tying run at the plate. It was all phases today. We didn’t pitch very well, obviously. We made some freshman mistakes. Some of these guys are going out for their first time. We pitched and our youth showed today. We had the bases loaded in back-to-back innings and we had some tough at bats where we could have opened it up a little bit more. I think Wyatt [Langford] was at third with one out and we struck out there. It was a bunch of things. A lot of things contributed to the loss today. Give Liberty credit. Their bullpen is good and they came in and threw strikes and made some big pitches when they needed to. The good thing about it is we still got a chance to win the series tomorrow.”
On the offense…
“I don’t think it was our best, for sure. I don’t have the box score in front of me, but we left quite a few guys on base. Kenny [Calilao] hit that ball really well. If the wind would have blown in from the back, he may have been into one. Their outfielders play extremely deep. Kris hit that ball really hard in the last inning there. We just did not do a very good job with runners in scoring position. Those things happen. It’s early in the season. We will learn from it, but the bottom line is when you have runners on third with less than two outs you have to do an early count. You don’t want to get two strikes and put yourself in a situation where you can potentially strike out.”
UP NEXT
Florida and Liberty meet in a game-three rubber match on Sunday at 12 p.m. Former Gator and current Tampa Bay Rays catcher Mike Zunino is set to throw out first-pitch honors. Game three will stream live on SEC Network+.
