GAME OVER
Though Josh Adams and Matt den Dekker both walked to start the inning, UF couldn't get much else going in the bottom of the ninth. After taking enough pitches to get a full count, Townsend popped up to the catcher, then Barber pops up to the shortstop and pinch hitter Jonathan Pigott flies out to center, ending the game.
UF will face USC tomorrow at 11 a.m. Eastern. The winner plays on and the loser goes home.
MID NINTH
Mullaney's night is done after one batter in the ninth. In comes J.K. LaCoste to pitch the rest of the inning for the Gators, who need very badly to end this one without giving up any more runs. LaCoste can't do that, however, as he gives up a single right away, then allows a runner to score on a double play. That's double play No. 4 for UF today.
A walk and a single later, LaCoste is still in trouble and is pulled for Clint Franklin, who has a very very long at-bat against Giobbi before finally getting him to fly out to right field.
As we head to the bottom of the ninth, the Gators are now down four runs. It would take an LSU-like miracle to win this one.
END EIGHTH
Nothing doing for UF in the eighth. Brandon McArthur walked to get the Gators their only runner on base, but the other three hitters in the inning did nothing to further the cause. Down three with three outs to go, things aren't looking good for Florida here. But, then again, LSU was down four runs heading into the bottom of the ninth in the first game today, so anything can happen.
MID EIGHTH
After Tony Davis gets the first batter of the inning out, O'Sullivan pulls him in favor of Kyle Mullaney. Mullaney started the year as the Gators' ace pitcher and has since been relegated to a bullpen role. That showed in the eighth, as he gave up a single to the first two batters he faced.
He buckles down, however, and gets a strikeout and lineout to end the inning and the late Vanderbilt threat. The Gators get Tignor and then the top of the order to start the eighth inning.
END SEVENTH
Nothing positive for UF comes from the seventh inning. Townsend gets a single, but the other three batters in the inning all get out. Just six outs left for UF to make up this three-run deficit.
MID SEVENTH
Tony Davis replaces Keating, and the controversial first out comes on a grounder to first base. The ball bounced over the bag and into foul territory, and Vandy is complaining that the ball was foul, not fair. The ump called it fair, and the Gators definitely aren't complaining. TV replays show the ball may have been foul after all. Davis retires the Commodores in order for the first time all game. Fantastic news for UF.
END SIXTH
If you would have told me Minor would come out of this game before Keating, I would have told you you were crazy. But after giving up a leadoff single and a walk, Drew Hayes comes in. The Gators are in need of some urgent scoring here.
Hayes gets Cooper to strike out swinging for the first out of the inning, but Hampton Tignor comes through big for the Gators by singling and scoring Townsend. After an Avery Barnes grounder nearly results in an inning-ending double play, McArthur hits a single up the middle to bring Munroe home from third.
Figueroa walks to load the bases and put the go-ahead run at the plate, but Josh Adams seems to be tying too hard to hit the homer. He swings for the fences and winds up popping out to shallow right field.
The Gators have cut into the lead here in the sixth, and they are only down by three now. They need to do some more of that to take the lead, however.
MID SIXTH
The hits keep on coming against Patrick Keating, and the UF starter begins the sixth by walking a batter and then giving up a hit.
Den Dekker makes a great diving catch in center field, then nearly throws out Alex Feinberg at home. A great effort from den Dekker, but the Commodores get their sixth run across the plate. Only one run against Keating has been unearned.
Still, Keating somehow makes it out for the inning again. He gets his third double play of the game and the damage stays at only one run. I'm constantly amazed by how many double plays this team turns, and they are fifth in the nation in that category as of May 18th with 65.
END FIFTH
Brandon McArthur leads off the inning with a nice double down the left-field line, but the Gators can't get anything out of it. Figueroa and Adams fly out, while den Dekker chooses to ground out to end the inning. That's an embarrassing inning for UF. You've got to score a run with a runner in scoring position and no outs.
MID FIFTH
Keating stays in for the fifth inning and records his first strikeout of the game. That's how off he has been - it took four innings for his first strikeout to go on the board. But Steven Liddle is the next Vandy batter and he hits a single up the middle. That seems to be a popular place for them to hit the ball.
Keating gets out of the inning right away, though, and Vanderbilt sends out three batters for the first time all game. Andrew Giobbi hit a grounder right back to him, and he turned the easy double play. One reached, but the Gators really needed that quick inning. Now they can get back to scoring.
END FOURTH
Den Dekker started the inning with a grounder to the shortstop and was just barely beaten at first base by the throw. I thought he was safe, but I missed the TV replay and will have to just believe the umpire.
After Townsend walks to get someone on base, Munroe pops out to the first baseman. I'm starting to question O'Sullivan putting Munroe in this game.
Riley Cooper is hit by Minor and then Tignor reaches on an error by Alvarez to load the bases. The ball bounced into and then out of Alvarez's glove, and even then Tignor was almost out on the throw. He's not exactly the fastest guy on the team.
Barnes comes up to put some runs on the board for UF, and instead strikes out on a high fastball. Now I know the Gators will look back on that inning and regret not scoring runs. They've stranded six runners so far today.
I don't want to sound like I'm sounding an early alarm because the game isn't even halfway over, but the Gators absolutely need to get some runs in the fifth inning. Every time they don't score, Vanderbilt seems to add to its lead. A four-run lead is surmountable. But any more than that, and this thing is over.
MID FOURTH
The more this game goes on, the less it looks like Patrick Keating's day. He gives up a single to start the inning and then walks the second batter he faces, prompting a visit to the mound from UF coach Kevin O'Sullivan. Dustin Bamberg is warming up in the bullpen, and he has only thrown 4.1 innings this year. Not a good sign for UF.
Another hit later and the bases are loaded, but Keating somehow skates away from that after allowing only one run. A double play ball from Pedro Alvarez and a fly out from Flaherty end the inning. Keating has been pretty bad so far.
END THIRD
After Hampton Tignor grounds out, Barnes reaches for the second time today by walking. Then, McArthur gets on base because of an error on Vandy's shortstop. The shortstop had a ground ball hit to him that was tailor-made for a double play, but he stopped the ball and for some reason didn't pick it up. He must not have held the ball tight enough, but he kept moving toward second base and the ball stayed on the ground where he touched it.
With two on and one out, though, the Gators can't capitalize. The Commodores pitcher, Minor, gets Figueroa to strike out looking and then retires Adams on a grounder to second base. They might look back on that inning later and regret not scoring any runs.
MID THIRD
I can't understand Townsend. After committing an error last time, he makes a great play to start off this inning. He picks up a grounder on an awkward, low hop, then throws off-balance to first for the out. He can make great plays and he can mess up easy ones.
An unassisted grounder to first base and then a grounder back to the mound sandwiched around a single end the inning. Keating must be happy to walk off the mound without giving up a run.
END SECOND
Townsend has a chance to immediately make up for that costly error in the top of the inning, but instead strikes out after a long at-bat. He must have fouled off four pitches, but in the end it was the pitch he didn't swing at that cost him.
Up next is Buddy Munroe playing designated hitter. No, that's not a typo. This is the first time all year Munroe or any player who usually catches has been the DH. He nearly gets a hold of a pitch, but the 'Dores' left fielder makes the catch just shy of the warning track.
Riley Cooper, starting in right field instead of Jonathan Pigott, takes a few good swings at pitches and gets one through the left side for UF's first hit of the inning. The wide receiver on the football team has actually been playing well lately after starting the season with a terrible streak. His .167 average is still pretty bad, but most of his eight hits have come in the last few weeks.
And, of course, after I compliment him, he gets caught stealing on the pickoff. Poor base running takes UF out of the inning.
MID SECOND
Maybe today isn't Patrick Keating's day. He gives up another run in the top of the second. After starting the inning with two straight singles, Vanderbilt hit a hard grounder at John Townsend at second base. The ball bounced high and off his glove, and it was ruled an error. Of all the Gators' regular starters, Townsend's .916 fielding percentage coming into the game was the lowest.
A sac bunt and single scored two more Vandy runs, and Keating barely managed to get out of this inning. The Gators' best starter during the year looked unable to find the strike zone, consistently pitching batters inside and nearly hitting them.
END FIRST
Despite giving up a run in the top of the first, the Gators respond strongly in the bottom half of the inning. Avery Barnes gets things started by legging out an infield single on a ball to the shortstop. He steals second - to no one's surprise - and then moves to third on a fly ball to right field from Brandon McArthur, batting second. Cole Figueroa brings him home with a single, and the Gators get the run right back.
Josh Adams tries to bunt to get on base, and the Vandy catcher for some reason goes to make a play on the ball even thought it looked like it was going foul. That decision winds up being the right one, and the catcher barely gets Adams out. Matt den Dekker ends the inning with a grounder to second base. But, most importantly, UF evens the score and Patrick Keating must be sighing with relief.
MID FIRST
After hitting the second batter he faced, Keating got himself into a little bit of a jam. The batter who got hit, Dominic de la Osa, stole second base and scored on a single from Ryan Flaherty.
A fly ball from Vandy's third hitter went really deep but stayed in the park. I keep forgetting how huge this park is, and whenever a ball leaves the bat of a player and looks like it would be a homer, the players in the outfield catch the ball with plenty of room to spare.
Jon Townsend, playing second base, ended the inning with a great diving stop of a grounder. The Gators, however, are already in a hole just three outs into the game.
3:15 p.m. Eastern
I can now confirm that Keating and Minor will be the pitchers for this game. Keating (8-0, 3.15 ERA) has seen his ERA steadily rise during the year but has not seen any numbers in the loss column yet. Minor (5-3 ,4.20 ERA) has less impressive numbers in both categories but has pitched approximately 16 more innings than Keating, has a lower opponent batting average and has nearly twice as many strikeouts.
This game is set to go in about 10 minutes. I'll get things started on the live blog once the game begins. UF is the home team in the contest and will bat second.
2:30 p.m. Eastern
Well, this first game of the Southeastern Conference Tournament just now ended. LSU had only knocked two hits all game before the ninth inning, but managed to hit a three-run homer and a game-tying RBI single in the bottom of the ninth to send this one to extras. A homer from outfielder Blake Dean in the bottom of the 10th sealed it for the Tigers, 5-4.
The UF-Vandy game, scheduled to start at 2 p.m. EST, will probably not begin until around 3:15 p.m. now. There will be a half hour between the games. Players from both teams were sitting in the stands watching this game, and now move toward the locker rooms.
I'll keep you updated once the UF game begins.
11:15 a.m. Eastern
We're currently in the bottom of the first inning of the first game of the Southeastern Conference Tournament between No. 2 LSU and No. 7 South Carolina. The No. 3 Gators face No. 6 Vanderbilt when this game is over. The winner of this game faces the winner of UF's game, and the loser of this game faces the loser of UF's game.
It's a beautiful day here in Alabama, and this road trip would be going perfect if not for the speeding ticket I got on the Alabama/Georgia border. Thanks, Chattahoochee County!
Anyway, I've never been in Alabama before, and the people here have been great so far. Fellow Alligator baseball writer Shannon McCarthy and I couldn't find our hotel yesterday, so we stopped into a random store to ask for directions, where a woman with a very thick southern accent proudly told us that "this is the craziest place in the world!" I don't know if I'd go that far, but it's been fun.
We decided to check out the Riverchase Galleria last night, the biggest mall in Alabama, and sure enough, we saw players from every team participating except South Carolina and LSU, as they had the earliest curfew because of the earliest game. It seemed like everyone from Kentucky's team was there last night, and we even saw five Gators. I very much considered asking a table of Vanderbilt players if they thought they were finally going to beat the Gators today (after losing three straight to UF last weekend), but thought better of it.
The press box here is very nice and home to all the Dr. Pepper and Golden Flake chips we can eat. They have a huge corner of the box roped off for printing off an insane number of scorecards, game notes, brackets and who knows what else. There are an uncountable number of boxes of paper sitting in the corner, and I can only hope they don't go through it all this weekend. That's a lot of trees.
This is only the second minor league park I've ever been to. Regions Park is home to the Birmingham Barons, the team Michael Jordan played for during his brief stint in baseball, a Chicago White Sox affiliate. It's 405 feet to dead center and 340 feet at the corners. Fans from all over the conference are here, though right now the stadium is pretty well divided between USC and LSU fans. The LSU fans are here in greater number, but they would be louder even if there were less of them.
The only other complaint I've had about the trip so far is that I'm in the central time zone for the first time in my life, and I was disappointed that there was no sign telling me that I was entering said time zone. I was really expecting a sign. Also, everyone I know is on the east coast, and that has already caused problems with me expecting people to be awake but they're actually asleep. Oh well. I'll get over that eventually.
I'll get back to you more after this game and once UF's game gets started. The Gators should be sending out Patrick Keating to face Vandy's Mike Minor, but I'll confirm that later. So long for now from the Heart of Dixie.
