The bad habits continued, and the outcome remained the same.
Florida’s opponent scored first, and the pitching staff allowed multiple home runs, as they did against USF and UNF earlier in the week.
As a result, the No. 6 Gators dropped their third consecutive game to Miami 5-2 Friday night.
Those issues compounded in the second inning when Alex Toral drilled a two-run home run to right field to put the Hurricanes ahead 2-0.
Toral’s fifth home run of the season came off Tyler Dyson and scored Adrian Del Castillo, who led off the inning with a single.
“The three losses we had this week we’ve been playing from behind,” coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “We’ve got to do a little bit better job with our starting pitching.”
UF did not score until the fourth inning. Brady McConnell led off with a double and scored on a Kendrick Calilao triple to right field with two outs. Up until McConnell’s hit, the Gators had no hits, three strikeouts and just one baserunner.
Miami’s Evan McKendry stifled the Gators’ bats. The junior threw 7.0 innings and allowed four hits and two runs, fanning nine batters and walking just one.
The other run McKendry allowed came in the sixth on a Nelson Maldonado RBI. Austin Langworthy led off with a single, and McConnell doubled once again to set up runners in scoring position for Maldonado. Langworthy scored on Maldonado’s groundout to third base, tying the game up at two.
Just minutes later, Miami’s Michael Amditis hit a solo home run to left-center field off Jordan Butler, who relieved Dyson in the fifth inning. Following the home run, Butler gave up a single and was pulled in favor of Hunter Ruth. The redshirt freshman allowed one run to score on a Freddy Zamora single but escaped the inning with a bases loaded strikeout.
Miami led by two after the seventh inning and added an insurance run in the next inning to go ahead 5-2.
Dyson had another pedestrian start, as he did on opening night a week ago against Long Beach State, only lasting 3.1 innings. He allowed two runs on six hits in 4.0 innings Friday night. Dyson finished with three strikeouts and one walk as well, but McKendry dominated the matchup.
“He threw 92 pitches through four (innings) and then you got go to the pen early,” O’Sullivan said. “We got to get into the second half of the game, it puts so much pressure on our bullpen.”
Last Friday, O’Sullivan was forced to call four pitchers out of the bullpen after Dyson’s outing and Friday he called out three after Dyson was pulled.
“I got to do a better job on opening weekend and setting the tone, and the first outing for me was unacceptable and this time too,” Dyson said. “I’ll get better and everyone’s going to get better and we’ll figure it out.”
The biggest concern so far has been the Gators’ performance at the plate. For the fourth time this season -- and for the third game in a row -- Florida had at least 10 strikeouts. Conversely, the UF pitching staff has not hit that mark once.
Friday night the Gators struck out 11 times and have done so 35 times over the course of the three-game losing streak.
“We’re trying to do everything we can to get the offense going,” O’Sullivan said. “We need more baserunners to get on so we can get some things going.”
Jud Fabian and Langworthy lead the team with nine strikeouts each. Fabian bats ninth and is supposed to still be in high school, while Langworthy leads off and is one of the more experienced players on the team.
The Gators went three up, three down four times against UM which limits their opportunities and allows opposing pitchers to keep their pitch count down.
Youth and inexperience were expected to give the team problems early on, but the shortcomings of some of the older players (Dyson and Langworthy) has been just as big of a problem.
O’Sullivan said he didn’t foresee these struggles but compared the season to a marathon.
“We talked about it yesterday, if this was a marathon, after just playing five games it equates to a little over two miles,” O’Sullivan said. “We’ve got 24 left to go.”
Follow Kyle Wood on Twitter @Kkylewood and contact him at kwood@alligator.org.
Tyler Dyson pitched 4.0 innings in the Gators' 5-2 loss to Miami on Friday night. The junior allowed six hits, two runs and walked one batter.
