Walks and missed opportunities can be just as harmful to a team's chances of winning as errors and home runs.
It was the little things that caused UF (26-14, 10-8 Southeastern Conference) to drop two of three to Mississippi (28-11, 11-7 SEC) this weekend in Gainesville.
After UF won Saturday's game 8-4, the Rebels took Sunday's matchup 5-3 on the legs of leadoff hitter Jordan Henry and the arm of starting pitcher Scott Bittle.
"There's no blame on any aspect of the team," UF left fielder Avery Barnes said. "Unfortunately, we just didn't come out and get it done today."
Henry drew four free passes and added a single in his fifth at-bat, disrupting the Gators' pitchers from the first inning.
The junior spark plug swiped three bags and scored 2 runs as Mississippi became the first SEC team to take a series from UF in McKethan Stadium this season.
Freshman starter Alex Panteliodis walked Henry on four pitches in the first and third innings, which set the tone for the game.
In Henry's first at-bat, he stole second and third base, but Panteliodis was able to pitch out of the jam without allowing a run. The second walk, however, proved costly as the Rebels' next hitter, Kyle Henson, took Panteliodis deep to tie the game at 2-2.
"The thing that's disappointing is we walked six guys today," UF coach Kevin O'Sullivan said. "A.P. (had) two four-pitch walks, and that just can't happen. That was the difference in the ballgame, in my opinion, because three of the walks scored and we lost by 2."
The other two walks that went on to score came in the fifth, when Greg Larson put Henry on first to start the inning and then intentionally walked Logan Power to put runners on the corners with one out. A wild pitch followed by a single was good enough to score both runners, and Mississippi took a 4-2 lead that held up for the rest of the game.
The Rebels got a quality start from senior right hander Scott Bittle, who went six innings and allowed 3 runs. Bittle's effort was the Rebels' second strong outing of the weekend, as sophomore Drew Pomeranz turned in a complete-game, nine-strikeout gem in Friday night's 6-2 victory.
"That's the best pitching staff we've seen so far," O'Sullivan said.
The Gators were able to get to Bittle in the first inning, when Daniel Pigott and Barnes each drew one-out walks and later scored on a single from Josh Adams and a bases-loaded walk from Teddy Foster. Home-plate umpire Randy Watkins had a tight zone throughout the game, and both coaches questioned balls and strikes calls at different points in the game.
The Gators stranded three runners in that first inning and 10 runners over the course of the eight-inning loss - the game was called an inning early due to travel rules.
Although UF was only able to muster 3 runs and were never able to string together a significant amount of hits, O'Sullivan said it was the pitching that ultimately came up short.
"I'm not disappointed with the offense. We battled all the way to the end," he said.
