Richie Martin wasn’t sure whether to keep running. Good thing he did.
Buddy Reed’s pop fly directly above home plate somehow missed the glove of Bethune-Cookman’s diving infielder, allowing Martin to step past him and tap home plate.
It was a slow scoring night for both sides, as No. 6 Florida (32-10) failed to record a hit until the sixth inning in its 2-1 win over Bethune-Cookman (15-30) on Tuesday.
The Wildcats hit .233 and were held scoreless until the eighth inning, while the Gators hit just .142 and tallied an error for the third straight game.
"It’s hard to make sense of it," senior Josh Tobias said of UF’s poor offensive outing. "Sometimes you have it, sometimes you don’t. It all comes down to adjustments. We made adjustments last week, we didn’t make any tonight."
Right-hander Eric Hanhold was solid in his third start of the season, striking out a career-high seven batters in 5.1 innings.
"I thought it was his best outing of the year," coach Kevin O’Sullivan said.
A.J. Puk, suspended from the team for a week after he and teammate Kirby Snead were arrested for trespassing, made his return in relief of Hanhold in the fifth. The sophomore tallied one wild pitch, one hit batter and one walk before being pulled in the same inning.
"I expected him to come in and throw strikes," O’Sullivan said of Puk. "I think his tempo and delivery did look a little bit slower, but the plan was to get him a couple innings and to get him ready for the weekend."
Aaron Rhodes took his place and gave up just one hit and struck out two batters in 2.1 innings. Bobby Poyner (3-1) got the win after relieving Rhodes and allowing just one hit in the game’s final two innings.
Bethune-Cookman scored a run in the eighth inning after Bryant Munoz singled to right field.
In the bottom half of the inning, Josh Tobias sent Martin home with an RBI single to take back the lead.
UF held the Wildcats scoreless for the remainder of the game to seal the win.
Next, Florida will prepare for a three-game home series with Kentucky on Friday.
"It was good to have the pitching tonight. Obviously we didn’t hit well, but its always good to have the pitching to back you up," Tobias said. "They’ve been throwing good all weekend, and it’s good for them to keep going through it and into this weekend, too."
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Josh Tobias bats during Florida's 14-8 win against Florida State on March 17 at McKethan Stadium.
