With his record unblemished, a key victory against Georgia on Sunday and an offense that's finally putting up runs behind him again, it's safe to say UF starter Patrick Keating is enjoying himself.
"That game was a lot of fun," Keating said of the Gators' 7-2 win. "To a lot of us it's the biggest game of the year."
Keating (8-0, 2.69 ERA) put up a strong 6 2/3-inning performance, tied his career high for strikeouts and gave UF (27-16, 12-9 Southeastern Conference) its first SEC-series win since late March.
The No. 10 Bulldogs (29-14-1/15-5-1 SEC) certainly aren't slouches - they hadn't lost an SEC series all season and are still on top of the conference standings.
"To come out and beat a good team like Georgia is really going to help us," Keating said. "It was probably one of the biggest wins of the year for us so far."
Catcher Teddy Foster agreed.
"Yeah, I'll back that up," Foster said. "Any time you have chance to take a series against a top-10 team, leading the SEC, especially at home where you can protect your home field, it's a huge win."
Georgia must have felt the same way, as the interstate rivalry boiled over on the final day of the series.
The Gators' bench and bullpen emptied in the bottom of the eighth inning after Georgia catcher Bryce Massanari and UF shortstop Cole Figueroa got into an argument after Figueroa's last at-bat.
The Bulldogs also left their bench after UF reliever Josh Edmonson ended the game on a strikeout.
"I think there was a lot of tension going on the whole game between a lot of players," Foster said. "They had some choice words when they struck out, and we had some choice words when we didn't get pitches going our way.
"The main thing is it was all sportsmanship. You disagree with a call, it happens in baseball. People get upset."
Keating felt the same way.
"Sometimes emotions get the better of people," he said.
On offense, senior first baseman Brandon McArthur added another chapter to the story of his career, pulling a three-run double down the third-base line in the third inning despite playing on a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament.
"I actually got in trouble a little bit for legging ground balls out that were routine plays," McArthur said.
UF added another run in the inning from a Jon Townsend single.
A little defense didn't hurt either.
With Georgia threatening to score its third run in the top of the seventh and a runner on third, second baseman Michael Demperio hit a fly ball to right field. UF right fielder Jonathan Pigott made the catch, then fired home to get Adam Fuller out on the play.
"All I had to do was go get it, turn, and he was right there," Foster said. "Easy play. Our outfielders work their tails off on plays like that."
The Gators lost Game 1 on Friday, 7-4, but won Game 2 Saturday by a 7-2 margin, the same score as Sunday's victory.
