If Deacon Liput had any doubts hanging over his head coming into Wednesday night’s game against Jacksonville, he let them all blow away with the gusty winds at McKethan Stadium.
The shortstop entered the matchup hitting a paltry .161 since his reinstatement to the lineup from a 14-game suspension to begin the season. Though he came through with the game-winning RBI against South Carolina last Sunday, it was apparent that he was not the same player who’d hit .270 during his freshman campaign.
“Obviously, I didn’t get off to the best of starts since I came back,” Liput said after UF's win against URI on March 10. “Baseball is a tough game as is, so the second you defeat yourself mentally, then you’re already defeated going into the (batter’s) box.”
Liput looked mentally ready on Wednesday though. The junior from Oviedo, Florida, recorded a hit off of every pitcher he faced en route to a 4-for-4 night from the plate. His surge in efficiency comes after being moved up in the batting order from seventh to fifth, a move UF coach Kevin O’Sullivan said was a vote of confidence for Liput.
“You can see how I feel about (him) offensively,” O’Sullivan said in a release. “I put him right in the five hole because he was seeing the ball pretty good. He just had not had a lot to show for it.”
Though the team has been mum on the exact details of his suspension since the beginning of the season — simply citing off-the-field issues — Liput said he is ready to take the lessons he learned from it and move forward with them.
“Your actions off the field, they weigh on more than just yourself,” he said. “It has an impact on everybody outside of that, including teammates, coaches, university, family and everything.”
Liput’s bat resurrecting from the dead like Frankenstein’s monster comes just in time for the No. 2 Gators (19-4, 2-1 SEC) when they open a three-game series against No. 4 Arkansas starting tonight at 6:30.
The Razorbacks (16-4, 5-0 SEC) will send junior right-hander Blaine Knight (3-0, 1.30 ERA) to the mound to counter Florida’s Brady Singer to kick off the series. Knight is coming off his worst start of the season last week against No. 6 Kentucky, where he allowed two runs on six hits through 4.2 innings of work.
However, last week’s “worst start” moniker is very much a nitpick when it comes to Knight. Through his 23 innings of work prior to his Kentucky start, he had given up just two runs on 15 hits while striking out 21 batters.
On the other side of the ball, the Razorbacks are no slouches. Seven of the team’s starting nine batters are hitting above .300 for the year. The offense is led by senior left fielder Luke Bonfield and freshman infielder Casey Martin. Bonfield’s .524 on-base percentage is good for fourth in the SEC, while Martin is eighth in the conference in home runs (7).
They’ll try to slow down Singer (5-0, 1.97 ERA), who has only surrendered one run on four hits while striking out 15 batters through his previous two outings.
With Liput perhaps getting back into the swing of things at the plate, he could be poised to lead a resurgent Gators offense that launched three homers Wednesday night. For now though, Liput said he’s just happy to be a part of the team again.
“I’ve really grown as a person,” he said. “I was just focusing on being the best teammate I could throughout my suspension.”
Follow Morgan McMullen on Twitter @MorganMcMuffin and contact him at mmcmullen@alligator.org.
Shortstop Deacon Liput was perfect from the plate Tuesday night against USF, going 3-of-3 with three RBIs and scoring two runs.
