Three months ago, Stephen Locke had to watch from the stands as Miami swept UF in a three-game series in Gainesville while Locke served a suspension for a DUI charge that was later dropped.
On Saturday night, the senior took the mound and made it certain that a different result would occur.
Locke went 7.1 innings and gave up just two unearned runs and the Gators topped the Hurricanes 8-2 in McKethan Stadium. He left to a standing ovation when replaced by Nick Maronde in the top of the eighth.
"It all started on the mound with Stephen," UF coach Kevin O'Sullivan said. "He did a heckuva job."
UF is now just one win away from a Super Regionals berth. Miami will face Jacksonville at 1 p.m. Sunday in an elimination game, and the winner will face the Gators at 6:30 p.m.
Should the Miami-Jacksonville winner defeat UF, there would be a winner-take-all rematch on Monday night.
If Saturday night's game was any indication, the Gators don't intend on waiting until Monday to clinch the Regional. After Miami got two runs across on just one hit in the top of the second, UF answered with four in the bottom of the inning.
Hurricanes ace Chris Hernandez walked Teddy Foster and Mike Mooney to start the inning. UF left fielder Avery Barnes then laid down a bunt and Hernandez threw to third, but was too late to get Foster.
"It was a close play," Hernandez said. "I thought he was out, but the umps have been calling safe all weekend, so I knew it was going to be a tough call."
The bases were now loaded with no outs, and Jonathan Pigott and Preston Tucker had back-to-back RBI singles.
That made 80 RBI on the year for Tucker, moving him into a tie with Ryan Shealy atop UF's single-season RBI record list.
"Tying (the record) is great, but again the guys hitting in front of me have the record just as much as I do because they're getting on base for me," Tucker said.
UF tacked on two more runs in the sixth along with one each in the seventh and eighth innings. Locke left in the eighth with runners on first and second and one out, but the freshman Maronde came in and shut the door, striking out Miami's No. 4 and No. 5 hitters.
Billy Bullock pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to finish it out and put the Gators one win away from their first Super Regional since 2005.
And they want that victory to come Sunday.
"You do everything you possibly can to win (Sunday night's) game," O'Sullivan said. "You don't want to have that mindset where you've got one to work with. That's not our mindset."
