GAME OVER
Finally, Campbell gets some mercy. Billy Bullock comes in to pitch the ninth for the Gators and does a fine job, partially because he threw well and partially because Campbell was certainly dejected.
Bullock gets a strikeout from the first batter, allows a single to the second and then gets a game-ending double play, UF's fifth of the contest. Final score: UF 15, Campbell 3.
END EIGHTH
Pisani flies to to right with the first out of the inning, and then the fans (all eight that are left) get to go crazy for Teddy Foster's introduction music. The music stops, and Foster strikes out looking. Bryson Barber pinch hits for Barnes, who had a great night with three hits in three at-bats, two walks, four runs and an RBI.
Barber steps in and laces a single over the second baseman to give him a 1.000 batting average and a 1.000 slugging percentage tonight. Interestingly, those are the same numbers as Barnes had. den Dekker then adds a double that hits the chalk in deep left field, but Figueroa can't come through with an RBI, as he grounds out to end the inning. It's not as if UF needed it, though.
UF leads 15-3 after eight and has 17 hits on the night.
MID EIGHTH
Tony Davis comes in to pitch for UF, and, for a change, stays in for more than one batter. This is a good chance for him to get some more hitters under his belt. After getting the first Camel to easily ground out back to the mound, he throws one wild pitch behind a Camel, sending him to first base.
Davis then records the final two outs of the inning of UF's fourth double play of the game. He got Campbell to ground to Pisani at second, who tagged the runner going to second before throwing to first before completing the double play.
UF leads 15-3 after seven and a half innings. Only three more outs before the Camels are taken out to pasture.
END SEVENTH
A walk and a single start off the inning for the Gators, and up comes replacement catch Teddy Foster. His intro music is also quite awesome. It's that song that goes "Please don't stop the music" over and over again. It's not awesome because its a good song (not at all the case), but because of how the fans react to it. The music, of course, must stop at some time, and the fans always yell at the press box when they stop it. Great stuff.
Anyway, Campbell's new pitcher, Austin Harris, gets into a bases-loaded situation by plunking foster on the back. Avery Barnes, who is 3 for 3 on the night with three runs scored, comes to the plate. Harris must be terrified. Barnes walks on four pitches, getting his first RBI of the night.
After four batters and one run with no outs, Harris' night is done. He has an infinite ERA in the game. That's has to be a bad night. Matt Martinez comes in to replace him as the giant hoarde of people on the mound dissolve to let him throw his warmup pitches.
The Camels' new pitcher walks yet another batter, scoring a run for UF. The fans chant "Pressure! Pressure!" every time a pitcher has three balls with the bases loaded. They're chanting that a lot tonight. The Gators have an 11-3 lead and still no outs in the inning.
The infield fly rule goes into effect with the bases loaded, as Figueroa gets an RBI on a "sac fly" that actually gets dropped by the second baseman. UF takes a 12-3 lead as Foster scores on the sacrifice and Barnes moves to third. This is starting to get embarrassing for Campbell.
McArthur adds to the total with a double, scoring Avery Barnes for the fourth time tonight. Adams follows that with his second hit, a single over the second baseman, and scores two more runners. With a 15-3 lead for UF, Campbell is making another pitching change.
In to pinch hit for UF will be Evan Chambers. The Gators are finally calling off the dogs and practically begging Campbell to get them out.
Chambers flies out to deep center field, giving the Camels some mercy. If it wasn't raining so hard, knocking the ball back toward the earth, the ball might have left the park.
Townsend comes up for the second time this inning as the rain gets even harder. He flies out to right field as the right fielder makes a great play. It's a 15-3 Gators lead.
MID SEVENTH
Edmondson keeps cruising through the Camels' lineup, getting a quick groundout, a strikeout and then another strikeout for a 1-2-3 inning. All of a sudden, this game has really sped up. The first two innings took over an hour, and then the next five and a half have taken another hour. Wow. Talk about quick.
END SIXTH
This poor third baseman keeps getting all kinds of terrible hops, but he manages to pull most of them off. Figueroa hits another hard grounder his way to start the inning, and he gets Figueroa out at first by the slimmest of margins.
The rain here has calmed down, allowing the teams to keep playing into the sixth inning. Brandon McArthur fails to get on base for the first time all night, grounding out to short. Adams, however, follows with his first hit of the evening, and now everyone on the team has a hit on the night. That's got to be a pretty rare occurrence. I can't figure out when that happened last.
Pigott ends the inning with a lineout to the shortstop. The Gators can't pad their lead, but they're still up by six with three innings to go.
MID SIXTH
Edmondson has settled down well, getting his last six outs in six batters. He starts off the sixth inning with a fly out to Adams in center field, and then allows a hit to the Camels' Brandon Scott.
Then, Edmondson makes a fantastic play, jumping up to stab a high ground ball bounce over his head, turning around and throwing the ball to second base, where Figueroa finishes the double play with a throw to first. It was the Gators' third double play on the night. They also had three double plays on Sunday against Miami.
UF is still up six runs on Campbell, 9-3.
END FIFTH
Townsend gets to finish the at-bat he started last inning before Pigott got picked off at first, and even gets a fresh count. He uses it to his advantage, smoking a double down the third base line just past the outstretched arms of the Camels' third baseman. He redeems himself on the next play, however, by throwing out Clayton Pisani at first after Pisani hit a hard grounder his way.
Buddy Munroe's intro music is awesome. His hitting? Not so much. He strikes out, but Josh Adams is the only UF batter without a hit tonight.
Avery Barnes comes through next, hitting a hard ball to the Camels' poor third baseman, Ryan Hamme. Hamme can't handle the ball cleanly, and Barnes reaches first safely. Townsend also moved to third on the play. It's been a tough night for Hamme, but he manages to end the inning on a groundout from den Dekker.
UF still has this game well in hand, with a 9-3 lead after five innings.
MID FIFTH
Campbell is on the receiving end of a bad call from the first base umpire, as their batter was safe but called out. Maybe the ump wants to get out of here before he catches a cold from the rain. The Gators get their second out on a grounder to first base. McArthur appeared to have trouble handling the ball, probably because it was so wet. Campbell lines out to second base to end the inning. There's lots of talk about calling the game in the press box, but I'll let you know if they do.
For now, we're still playing despite the large amounts of rain. It's 9-3 Gators going into the bottom of the fifth.
END FOURTH
Have I mentioned that the Gators are playing the Camels? Avery Barnes starts off the fourth by walloping a line drive past the Camels' third baseman. Barnes comes up limping, looking like he is favoring his left leg or hip. An athletic trainer comes out to take a look at him, and Barnes remains in the game. I'll keep you updated on Barnes' status if anything changes.
The next play is a high-bouncing grounder off den Dekker's bat that the Camels' shortstop can't make a play on. The ball bounces under his glove, and den Dekker advances to second. On the throw into second, Barnes manages to score to give UF a 7-3 lead. His leg looked fine.
Cole Figueroa struck out with what was a very awkward swing. It looked like the pitch completely fooled him and caught him off-balance. I haven't been covering UF baseball for very long, but I've never seen Figueroa swing like that. The Camels' pitcher should be proud.
McArthur reaches first on a throwing error by the Camels' third baseman. The error was caused by pressure from den Dekker threatening to run from second to third. McArthur has now been on base all three times he was at the plate tonight.
Josh Adams hits a sac fly to foul territory in right field, and den Dekker scores. McArthur moves over to third on the out. Another error gets Jonathan Pigott on first base, also by the third baseman. He was unable to handle the grounder, and Pigot just beat out the throw once the third baseman was able to recover.
Jon Townsend comes out to his usual "Jammin'" with the rain coming down quite hard. The Gators are finally caught on a pickoff. It was only a matter of time until the Camels pulled one off successfully.
UF leads 9-3 after four innings.
MID FOURTH
Without good defense, the Gators might be having a closer game right now. For the fourth inning in a row, the Camels' leadoff batter gets on base, this time with a single. A fly out to left field gives Edmondson his first out of the inning
Jon Townsend makes an absolutely fantastic play, diving and giving full extension to his left to catch a line drive inches above the ground. Then, Townsend gets up and throws the ball to first base to double up the runner. Edmondson has got to be thrilled with that kind of defense.
END THIRD
With the first at-bat in the third inning for UF, Pigott barely gets beaten out on a bunt attempt. The crowd isn't happy, but, again, from where I'm sitting, the ump made the right call.
Townsend is next to bat, but quickly takes a seat after popping out to first base. The Camels first baseman nearly missed the ball, falling down as he made the catch.
Pisani follows with a home run over the left field fence. Public address annoucer Tom Collett, before the ball went over the fence, said "Get the home run music ready." And they got it ready.
Even better, Buddy Munroe's five seconds of rock music followed the home run. He grounded out to end the inning, but UF takes a 6-3 lead after three.
MID THIRD
den Dekker gets his third straight inning with a leadoff batter. Campbell grounds into a double play, but it was only a double play because the runner from first interfered with Figueroa's throw. So with two outs and a runner on third, Coach Kevin O'Sullivan makes his first pitching change of the night- den Dekker is out and Josh Edmondson is in.
Edmondson walks the first batter he faces on a wild pitch, moving the Camels' runner over to third. After loading the count and after several more foul balls from Campbell's Brandon Scott, Edmondson loads the bases with another walk. Edmonson has faced two batters and walked both of them. Not exactly what O'Sullivan had in mind when he replaced den Dekker. Still, Edmondson buckles down and strikes out his first batter of the night.
With a K/BB ratio of 0.50, something that would make fantasy owners cry, Edmondson gets out of the inning with UF ahead 5-3.
END SECOND
Buddy Munroe has the best intro music of any of the Gators, and I may be biased because I don't like rap music and that's what most of it is. Munroe's is some rock song by Atreyu, and I get excited for him coming up to bat every time because I get to hear five seconds of a rock song.
Anyway, Munroe hits a blooper over the shortstop after Pisani started the inning with a groundout. Barnes follows suit with a single, and UF has runners on first and second with one out.
Following Barnes is den Dekker, who as I've discussed before, has the worst intro music on the team. Another huddle breaks out on the mound, and this time I think they're going to actually replace the Campbell pitcher. I looked up and saw the left and right fielders not in their position and thought they, too, joined the conference on the mound. But it turns out they were just doing their own conference in center field.
Campbell replaces Raisch with Hunter Ford. den Dekker sacrifices Munroe over to third with Figueroa coming to bat.
I don't even know what to call what just happened, and neither does baseball Sports Information Director John Hines. The Camels looked to have Barnes picked off at first, but instead of tagging him out, they throw to third to try to get Munroe. Munroe makes it back safe, and Barnes advances to second on the throw. Of course, Figueroa comes up with a double, scoring both of them to give UF a 4-3 lead.
Brandon McArthur breaks out of his hitting slump with an RBI-triple down the left field line. Figueroa scores easily on the play and McArthur barely had to slide into third to get there safely. He's got to be happy to get his first hit in six days.
Josh Adams ends the inning with a pop up, but the damage was done. UF leads 5-3 after two.
MID SECOND
After giving up another leadoff hit, den Dekker takes advantage of a poor bunt attempt by the Camels and throws out the lead runner. Buddy Munroe makes a great play, throwing out a runner attempting to steal, and den Dekker induces a deep fly ball to end the inning.
It was den Dekker's first career inning without giving up a run. UF is still down 3-2 after one and a half.
END FIRST
For some reason my Mozilla Firefox browser isn't working very well, so I am stuck having to use Internet Explorer to update the blog. Forgive me if this blog starts getting crappier because of it.
This is the half-inning where UF comes back and scores five runs to get back at the Camels. Avery Barnes starts the game with a walk, and then promptly steals second base. den Dekker comes to the plate for his first-college-at-bat-while-also-pitching and comes up big, sending Barnes to third with a single through the left side.
The Gators' best hitter then does what he does…well…best. Cole Figueroa drives in his 14th runner with a sacrifice fly to deep left field. The ball missed going over the fence for a three-run homer by 10 feet at most.
Brandon McArthur gets on base for the first time in a while with a walk. A conference of every Camel infielder, the catcher, the coach and maybe a few fans takes place on the mound. Seriously, there are seven people on the mound. They break like a football huddle as Josh Adams comes to the plate. It is worth noting that Campbell starter Cody Raisch has a 13.50 ERA this season based on 2/3 innings of work and one run allowed.
Adams moves den Dekker to third with a sac fly to right-center field. That ball also looked like it could have left the park, but it stayed in. Then, Brandon McArthur almost gets picked off at first, but Campbell forgets how to execute a pickoff play, and the second baseman lazily throws the ball back to first.
Of course, the next pitch sees Jonathan Pigott extend his hitting streak to 13 games dating back to last season and scoring a run for UF. It's 3-2 with Jon Townsend coming to the plate, and he strikes out to end the first.
It was a good half-inning for the UF batters, however, as they cut the Camels' lead to just one run. It's 3-2 after one.
MID FIRST
den Dekker's first college start begins poorly, as he gives up a hit through the right side to Camels' shortstop Zach Johnson. I'm going to make a point of calling them the Camels whenever I can. It's just that good of a mascot. den Dekker gets back into the groove after that, however, recording his first college strikeout on three pitches. I have a sneaking suspicion that he's going to be doing a lot of firsts tonight. Just a hunch.
There he goes again with another first: his first walk. After starting off ahead 0-2 in the count to the Camels' Brian Gana, he throws four straight balls. The next batter gets hit by a pitch for den Dekker's first career hit batter. Also now he is facing his first career bases-loaded situation.
With the bases loaded, den Dekker allows his first career earned run while recording his first induced flyout. The UF dugout is very much behind him, shouting his name and offering encouragement. den Dekker gives up another hit through the left side, and the Camel barely beats out the throw home. From where I'm sitting, it looked like the tag beat the runner, but the umpire at home calls him safe, much to the chagrin of fans who had earlier heckled him for wearing a different color blue uniform than the other umpires. Campbell takes a 2-0 lead.
The lead is now 3-0 as Campbell bloops a single over second base. With runners at the corners, den Dekker catches the runner at third in a rundown. The pitcher threw 31 pitches that inning.
PRE-GAME
Okay, after about half an hour of rain delay, it looks like we're finally going to get started here at McKethan Stadium. It's good to be home back in Gainesville after a weekend in Miami. The facilities are much nicer here, and I have no problem getting wireless Internet access. The Gators are warming up in the outfield and the Fighting Camels are warming up by their dugout.
Starting on the mound today for UF is sophomore Matt den Dekker. This will be his first career pitching start, as he usually plays center field. Unlike most pitchers, den Dekker will also be hitting. He's second in the order. Clayton Pisani has moved down to No. 8 in the order and Avery Barnes is back as the leadoff man. Josh Adams moves over to center field to replace den Dekker. This kid really can play everywher.
