On a day meant for celebration, Anthony DeSclafani had little to be happy about.
The UF pitcher, who turned 20 on Sunday, struggled from the start and helped dig a hole No. 7 Florida (25-10, 10-5 Southeastern Conference) could not climb out of as Kentucky (22-14, 5-10 SEC) escaped a series sweep with a 6-5 victory.
The Wildcats scored all of their runs in the first three innings against the sophomore, who was making his first start on the mound since March 24, and jumped out to an early 6-0 lead.
“We obviously didn’t get a great start from Anthony,” UF coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “It’s just unfortunate we fell behind early in the game.”
DeSclafani lasted just 2.1 innings and gave up six runs on eight hits. In the three innings he appeared in, the right-hander allowed the first two hitters to reach base in each one.
Despite the bad start, UF still had ample opportunities to win Sunday thanks in part to the performance of freshman reliever Steven Rodriguez.
Rodriguez, who made his first appearance since going down with a finger injury March 24, came out of the bullpen and threw a career-high five innings of scoreless baseball.
“The bright side is we got Paco (Rodriguez) back, and he threw outstanding for five innings,” O’Sullivan said.
During one stretch, Rodriquez sat down 11 of 12 hitters, giving UF a chance to mount a comeback.
But missed opportunities in the fourth and seventh innings would come back to haunt the Gators as they left the bases loaded in both frames.
Still, UF made one last push in the ninth, down 6-3.
Second baseman Josh Adams came up to the plate in the final frame with just six hits in 51 at-bats during conference play, but he added one hit to that total with a two-run homer in the ninth to make it a 6-5 game.
However, that was all Florida could muster as sophomore Preston Tucker swung at the first pitch he saw and grounded out to second base with a runner on first to end the game.
“There was no sense in taking pitches there,” O’Sullivan said. “We were taking (pitches) early in the inning to try to get some base runners and we put ourselves in position, but we certainly aren’t going to put Tucker taking pitches there, when he has a chance to put something out of the stadium.”
The offense relied on the long ball for the third-straight day. Florida hit three homers Sunday to push its total to nine round trippers in the three-game series. Before this stretch, it took the Gators 10 games to hit its previous nine homers.
“I’m in belief that our offense is getting going again and we are swinging the bats aggressively,” O’Sullivan said.
Along with Adams’ two-run shot, Tucker hit his second homer in as many games and freshman Austin Maddox racked up his third home run of the weekend.
Maddox sent a ball out of the park in each game of the series. He leads the team with 12 home runs.
A radio broadcast contributed to this report.
