1 week Ago
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The Florida Gators earned a very important series win over the weekend, taking down No. 5 Arkansas at Condron Family Ballpark in two out of the three games.
Still fighting for their postseason lives, both the Gator bats and arms did just enough to secure themselves the series victory and moved their overall record to 30-16 and conference record to 8-13. Friday Night Ace Steals the Show in Game One Florida’s ace Liam Peterson got things started this weekend by putting on a pitching clinic for the fans and his teammates. He struck out a career-high 13 batters across six innings and chucked a career-high 114 pitches in the win on Friday.
“He was special tonight,” Gators head coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. It didn’t start how he had hoped it would, but outside of the two home runs given up in the first two innings, he was nearly untouchable. From the beginning of the third to the end of the sixth, he picked up eight strikeouts and threw up four zeroes on the scoreboard.
“Yeah, it was really fun,” Peterson said. “(Arkansas) got a lot of good guys. So being able to do that, and on top of that, get a win.
” Peterson's performance kept Florida's momentum alive as the Gator bats slowly woke up. After not finding any rhythm in the first two frames, Florida scored six unanswered runs from the third to the fifth to take a 6-2 lead. A three-run home run from Luke Heyman was the highlight during the run.
O’Sullivan called upon righty Jake Clemente out of the pen over the final three innings after the Razorbacks plated two, and the flamethrower shut the door on the Razorbacks as Florida won 6-4, Clemente only needed 31 pitches to retire eight straight batters in route to the victory. “Didn't even feel like 31 I mean, it just felt like I was cruising on Friday.” Clemente said.
While the hitters weren’t at their best in Game Two , it was Florida’s defense that cost them the win on Saturday. Florida entered the fifth inning deadlocked in a 0-0 tie, but the Gators left trailing 6-0 by the end of it. Bobby Boser started the lapse in defensive play with a one-out error over at third base, which was compounded with a single and an error out in left field by Blake Cyr that helped manufacture a six-run burst from the Razorbacks.
Florida wasn’t able to rebound from their mistakes, and it ultimately led to a 7-0 defeat. The Gators managed to get on the board first in the finale of the series. Back-to-back doubles from Cyr and Heyman supplied a 1-0 lead to the hosts early, but Arkansas responded with a five-run second inning.
Florida pitchers Billy Barlow and Alex Philpott combined to hit two batters and give up two walks and three hits. Rather than see the runs compound, which has been a staple for most of the year, Florida responded with eight unanswered runs to get their first resume-defining series win of the season. Despite only one home run, Florida tallied 12 total hits against the Razorbacks with half being extra-base hits.
“Offensively, you know, we were really good,” O’Sullivan said Sunday. Outfielder Ty Evans, who hadn’t played since April 8, supplied the Gators' lone home run of the day with a two-out solo shot in the seventh inning to extend Florida's lead to 8-5. “After my first at bat, I felt confident that I was seeing everything again,” Evans said.
“ From then on, man, I was just trying to just go in there, just see ball, hit ball, and it ended up working out.” Florida would add one more insurance run in the eighth to give them a four-run lead into the final inning. Much like Friday, Clemente was called upon to close things out, but things got worrisome as Arkansas loaded the bases with just one out.
Clemente refocused himself to get the next two batters out as Florida clinched a must-needed series win. “He was outstanding, really outstanding,” O’Sullivan said of his closer. “He did what he needed to do.
Florida will be on the road the next two weekends. They start off with a trip to South Carolina next weekend for a three-game series against the Gamecocks that begins on Friday. After that series, they’ll host USF on Tuesday, May 6, before facing off against Texas in Austin for their final SEC road series of the year.
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