Charleston Southern’s cleanup hitter beat Florida from the mound instead of the batter’s box Sunday.
Junior Tyler Thornburg, who hit fourth in all three games against No. 6 UF (11-3), took the mound in the third matchup and struck out 11 in a complete-game effort while limiting the Gators to a season-low three runs and seven hits. The performance took 158 pitches (101 strikes).
The right-hander baffled UF hitters for most of the day, and the Buccaneers (6-10) were able to steal the final game of the series and hand the Gators their first home loss of season by a score of 6-3 on Sunday.
“He was throwing all three pitches (fastball, breaking ball and changeup) for strikes,” sophomore Preston Tucker said. “He’s got three pitches that he’s got good command of, and he pitched really well.”
Despite going deep into pitch counts and running up Thornburg’s pitch count, the Gators couldn’t force the Buccaneers to use their bullpen.
“We do that with most pitchers, especially if it’s a Sunday game and the team has a blown-out bullpen,” Tucker said of a CSU team that threw out four bullpen pitchers Saturday. “You just try to run the pitch count up, but he stayed out there and did real well.”
Thornburg also helped give CSU a 1-0 lead in the first with a sacrifice fly to drive in Brantley Meier.
The Buccaneers scored two more off sophomore pitcher Tommy Toledo in the third thanks to a two-run homer from center fielder Jon Matthews that curled just inside the left-field foul pole to make it 3-0.
But things took a turn for the worse in the fourth when Toledo was struck in the face by a comebacker. He left the game and was rushed to the hospital after lying motionless for about three minutes.
A UF spokesman said Toledo sustained facial fractures and a broken nose, and he was released from Shands at UF on Sunday evening.
The Gators bounced back from the incident in the bottom of the inning, loading the bases with no outs. Left fielder Tyler Thompson hit a sacrifice fly to score one, but the next two batters, Bryson Smith and Kamm Washington, struck out swinging to end the threat.
“It hurt a ton,” Tucker said. “You don’t know how many opportunities you are going to have in a game, and unfortunately that was one of the few we got and we didn’t cash in.”
Florida attempted to rally one last time in the bottom of the ninth with the score 6-2, but it was only able to plate one run.
“He never gave us a chance to get the tying run up to the plate,” UF coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “That’s about as gutsy a performance as I’ve seen in a long time.”
The Gators won the first two games 6-0 and 12-2, and they’ll try to bounce back from the loss Monday against Army at 6:30 p.m. Sophomore Anthony DeSclafani will start.
