TALLAHASSEE — A blown electricity source sucked the power out of Dick Howser Stadium and the bats Tuesday.
The start time was delayed 15 minutes due to an electricity outage that lasted until the bottom of the fourth inning.
UF and FSU played to the theme and combined for just five runs and zero homers after scoring an average of just more than 12 runs per game in their first three meetings this season.
No. 6 FSU (26-7, 10-5 Atlantic Coast Conference) was able to hold off the No. 7 Gators (23-9, 8-4 Southeastern Conference) in a low scoring 3-2 affair to take the season series.
FSU pitcher Scott Sitz lasted a career-high six innings and shut the Gators down in the process. The freshman held them to just four hits and two runs.
“We didn’t get our bats going,” UF center fielder Matt den Dekker said. “Any time you are limited to four hits, you are going to have a tough time winning the ball game. We pitched well enough to win.”
The top-two hitters in Florida’s lineup, Nolan Fontana and den Dekker, combined for just one hit and struggled to reach base for the third and fourth hitters, Preston Tucker and Austin Maddox.
“We are going to have to look at our offense and shake some things up and give guys some opportunities that they may have wanted earlier on,” UF coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “We have to put our heads together to try to get some more offense going.”
FSU, on the other hand, got on the scoreboard early after center fielder Tyler Holt reached on a single to lead off the first and stole second during the next at-bat. He later scored the first run of the game on a two-out RBI single by right fielder James Ramsey.
The Gators struggled to get the last out in the second inning, too. Sophomore pitcher Greg Larson, who made his second start of the season Tuesday, retired the first two hitters in the inning on just two pitches, but then allowed three straight hits, which resulted in two runs to make it a 3-0 lead for FSU.
“You have to buckle down and make pitches, and we just weren’t able to do that in the first two innings,” O’Sullivan said.
Larson lasted just two innings as the Seminoles rocked him for seven hits and three runs. In the four games the teams played this season, FSU has tagged Florida’s starting pitchers for 14 runs in only eight combined innings of work.
“The three losses that we’ve had to FSU, we just haven’t gotten off on the right foot with the starting pitcher,” O’Sullivan said. “I’d like to think if we just get a little bit of a better start we have a chance to do something.”
Despite the bullpen throwing six scoreless innings in relief for the right-handed hurler, the Gators never managed to grab the lead.
UF scored two runs in the fourth on RBIs from second baseman Josh Adams and catcher Mike Zunino to close the gap to 3-2, which was the closest it would get.
It had an opportunity in the sixth to do some damage with runners on first and second, but FSU third baseman Sherman Johnson snagged a hard hit ground ball off the bat of Zunino and dove to just tag left fielder Tyler Thompson out at third to end the inning.
