After an eight-run loss to Florida State on Tuesday, UF's pitchers were supposed to wake themselves up with an easy win over North Florida.
Someone forgot to set the alarm.
Awful pitching early and late gave the Gators' offense plenty of catching up to do, and the Ospreys always seemed to outscore them by one run in an 11-10 loss in 10 innings.
UNF scored the winning run on a single from Chad Knight off UF reliever Kyle Mullaney, the sixth of seven pitchers on the night.
UF coach Kevin O'Sullivan was not pleased with his pitching against UNF (16-12, 7-8 Atlantic Sun Conference), a team the Gators should beat handily on paper.
"Pitching-wise, we were terrible," O'Sullivan said. "Every time we scored runs, we gave up runs."
It appears the five games the Gators are playing each week are finally wearing down the pitching staff.
"We've got nine healthy arms," O'Sullivan said. "We're asking position players who haven't pitched since high school to pitch. We don't have much. We just keep using the same guys over and over."
UF allowed UNF's leadoff hitters to reach base in each of the first five innings, and the second batters reached safely in the first four.
"You've got to get the leadoff hitter, and we didn't do a good job getting the second guy," O'Sullivan said. "When you don't get the first two guys in the inning, you're asking for trouble."
UF threw out every pitcher it could on Wednesday, starting usual designated hitter Dustin Bamberg, and then following him with Tony Davis and Josh Edmondson - all before three innings passed.
The Gators' last chance to extend the game ended when Matt den Dekker flew out to center field in the bottom of the 10th inning.
The game was practically a marathon, running exactly four hours.
"I like baseball," UNF coach Dusty Rhodes said. "I don't give a damn if it takes all night. … Where am I going to go? Party after the game? I'm too old for that."
After trailing all night, No. 19 UF (20-8, 7-2 Southeastern Conference) finally took the lead with a three-run sixth inning.
Two singles, a walk and a double plated two Gators, and then Cole Figueroa barely scored from third base on a wild pitch to give UF the go-ahead run. It was a risky move considering the ball only went to the edge of the clay to the UNF catcher's right, but Figueroa slid in just under his tag.
"(Assistant coach Craig Bell) told me just to be real aggressive," Figueroa said. "If I thought I could make it, just go. At that point in the ballgame, you've just got to take a chance, and that's what I did."
It is the first time this season that UF has lost three games in a row.
"You've just got to forget it and keep playing hard," Figueroa said.
Clint Franklin (3-2) got the loss for the Gators while Ty Pryor (3-3) earned the win for the Ospreys.
Bamberg, who also retained his duties as the team's designated hitter, left after 1 1/3 innings and four earned runs on five hits.
The Gators' biggest offensive burst came off the bat of center fielder Matt den Dekker, who hit a three-run homer in the second inning and also added an RBI-triple in the fourth.
