Just five days ago Austin Maddox came through to put the Gators on top with a three-run homer in the eighth inning.
On Friday, the freshman had a chance to do it again, but he could not come up with the same result.
Maddox came up to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs in the ninth but could not convert as No. 2 Florida (17-4, 3-1 Southeastern Conference) fell 3-2 to No. 18 Ole Miss (18-5, 3-1 SEC) on Friday.
“We put ourselves in position,” UF coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “We had the right guy at the plate, and I wouldn’t have changed that scenario with having Maddox up there.”
After trailing 3-1 for most of the game, the Gators scored a run off of freshman relief pitcher Brett Huber in the ninth to cut the Rebels’ lead to just one after sophomore Daniel Pigott hit an RBI single to drive in freshman Kamm Washington.
First baseman Preston Tucker then walked to load the bases. But the comeback fell short as Maddox, who leads the team with 28 RBIs, was called out on strikes with the tying run stranded at third.
Florida left 11 runners on base in the game and could not get anything going against Ole Miss starting pitcher Drew Pomeranz, who came into the game with a 1.23 ERA.
He struck out nine and allowed just one run in 7.1 innings of work.
Pomeranz didn’t shy away from the middle of the order either. He held Tucker hitless in four at-bats and struck him out twice.
But Alex Panteliodis was up for the challenge.
UF’s sophomore pitcher allowed three early runs within the first two innings, but settled down and didn’t allow another run after that. At one point he retired 15 hitters in a row as he went on to pitch 7.1 innings while ringing up eight Ole Miss hitters in his first loss of the season.
“I thought he did a nice job,” O’Sullivan said. “I just wish we would have located out pitches better in the first two innings.”
The Gators will try to bounce back on Saturday, as they take on the Rebels at 7 p.m. in the second game of the series. Freshman Brian Johnson will be on the mound for UF.
A radio broadcast contributed to this report.
