Mississippi State hitters hit fly ball after fly ball off of Alex Panteliodis on Friday.
Thankfully for Panteliodis, left fielder Tyler Thompson turned in his best defensive game as a Gator.
Thompson went over the fence to rob first baseman Connor Powers of his ninth home run, and made a running catch in the fifth to save a would-be extra base hit and helped No. 6 Florida (14-3, 1-0 Southeastern Conference) kick off conference play with a 7-2 win over Mississippi State (11-7, 0-1 SEC).
“It was his (Thompson’s) best game defensively, for sure,” UF coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “If a couple of those balls fall or that ball goes out, it might have been a different ball game.”
Despite struggling with his control, Panteliodis used the defense of Thompson to last a career-high 7.1 innings while only allowing two earned runs in his fifth win of the season.
“First pitch strikes were a little bit challenging tonight, Panteliodis said. “I wouldn’t put it up with one of my greatest performances tonight. I have to give it to my defense in this one.”
The Gators gave the sophomore pitcher an early lead as Austin Maddox doubled to right field and drove in the first two runs of the game.
After that, the offense was fairly quiet until first baseman Preston Tucker and Maddox hit back-to-back homers to lead off the sixth inning.
Tucker’s round tripper was his third in as many games, after going 14 games without one.
But Florida didn’t stop there. It scored three more in the inning with the help of a two-run single from Thompson to make the score 7-1.
“The coaches made a little adjustment to my swing to make it a little shorter and take the sweep out of it,” Thompson said. “I’ve been working on it the past couple of days, and I feel a lot more comfortable at the plate.”
The left fielder was 1 for his last 12 with five strikeouts during that stretch before Friday.
Reliever Greg Larson took it from there.
After allowing seven earned runs in his last two appearances over a span of 1.1 innings, Larson retired five of the six hitters he faced on Friday. He didn’t allow a run and struck out two.
“That was huge. For him to just shut them down like that and throw two solid innings was real impressive,” Tucker said. “Coming off of a few rough outings, this is going to boost his confidence a lot.”
The Gators will look to clinch the series against the Bulldogs on Saturday at 7 p.m. Freshman Brian Johnson will be on the mound for UF.
