Jeremy Vasquez stood calm, cool, and collected in the batter’s box during the ninth inning on Saturday.
Florida, already down 1-0 in the series to Georgia after the Bulldogs’ 11-1 rout on Friday, had the bases loaded with two outs in a tie ballgame.
And with the Gators still in the hunt for the Southeastern Conference title with the season winding down, they couldn’t afford to drop the series.
Vasquez made sure UF ended on top.
The freshman laced a two-out single to right field, scoring Richie Martin from third and giving No. 10 Florida a 3-2 win over Georgia in Athens to tie the series at 1-1.
“I just told the team, ‘There needs to be a game or an at-bat that needs to kind of charge us and get us going,’” UF coach Kevin O’Sullivan said in a radio interview. “I’m hoping Jeremy’s at-bat in this game kind of gets us going because I think we’re kind of playing on our heels a little bit, looking for the next guy to make something happen.”
UF’s A.J. Puk, earning his first start on the mound since his April 4 outing against Missouri, showed up when the Gators (34-13, 14-9 SEC) needed him to the most.
The sophomore lefty struck out a career-high 11 batters and gave up just two hits — which would have been three if not for an incredible grab off the center-field wall by sophomore Buddy Reed to start the bottom of the second — in six scoreless innings.
He retired 16 straight batters before heading to the bench before the bottom of the seventh and recorded two strikeouts in five of his six innings of work.
Puk now has a team-leading 56 strikeouts in just 44.1 innings of work, which is seven more than Logan Shore in 24.1 less innings.
“It’s the best outing he’s had,” O’Sullivan said. “I know he was anxious to get out on the mound again. … I’d like to tell you I’m surprised, but I’ve kind of been waiting for it. That was a dominant performance against a team that’s playing good.”
Florida opened up scoring in the third inning on a Harrison Bader RBI single that scored Josh Tobias from third base.
The score remained 1-0 until the bottom of the seventh inning when UGA (22-24, 7-15) tied the game on a Mitchell Webb RBI double.
The two teams went tit-for-tat in the eighth, with the Gators going up 2-1 on a Mike Rivera single and the Bulldogs answering with a Stephen Wrenn home run to left field.
And while Vasquez put in the winning dagger in the ninth, Florida had more than its fair share of opportunities to put this game away.
The Gators loaded the bases in the first inning with one out only to get nothing in return.
Reed reached second base to open the second inning only to see the three batters behind him be called out.
Two more reached base in the fourth only to see back-to-back-to-back outs.
In total, Florida left 10 runners on base.
“It’s well documented we haven’t played well from behind,” O’Sullivan said. “We had a lot of opportunities. We got a lot of leadoff men on today and weren’t able to string together some at-bats. We’re going to come out of it. It’s just one of those deals.”
The rubber game of the series is set for Sunday at 1 p.m. Freshman Alex Faedo (4-1, 2.52 ERA) will start for the Gators.
A radio broadcast contributed to this report.
Follow Jordan McPherson on Twitter @J_McPherson1126
Freshman Jeremy Vasquez runs toward first base during Florida's 7-4 win against Alabama on March 28 at McKethan Stadium.
