Coach Kevin O’Sullivan said earlier this week Florida hitters needed more productive at-bats.
UF witnessed what an efficient offense can do Friday against No. 9 Arkansas (33-6, 13-3 Southeastern Conference). Unfortunately for the Gators, they saw it from the wrong perspective.
Arkansas recorded one more hit than No. 7 Florida (26-11, 10-6 SEC), but the Razorbacks still beat the Gators 8-3 in the first meeting of a three-game series in McKethan Stadium. Six of the Razorbacks runs came off homers, and the Gators were 0 for 6 with runners in scoring position.
“It’s very frustrating,” catcher Mike Zunino said. “We’ve been doing a great job of hitting all the guys in and not leaving too many runners on. It just sort of piled up (tonight).”
The Razorbacks are first in the SEC and now hold a three-game conference lead on the fourth-place Gators.
“(Arkansas is) a good hitting team,” coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “They’re an older club that’s been to Omaha. They’ve got some really good hitters. We’ve got to make better pitches, though. It’s as simple as that.”
The Razorbacks took UF starter Alex Panteliodis (6-2, 3.18 ERA) deep twice on Friday, and the sophomore pitcher has allowed six round-trippers in his last two starts.
Panteliodis has struggled to keep pitches low in the zone, and 14 of the 17 balls in play Friday were fly balls. Arkansas first took advantage of the pitcher’s mistakes in the second inning, when left fielder Travis Sample hit a solo shot.
“We had a lot of juice coming into the game,” Panteliodis said. “We were all ready to go, pumped up, and a couple of pitches didn’t fall our way. That changed the momentum of the game.”
Panteliodis recovered after the initial homer, allowing no other hits until the sixth. But trying to protect a 2-1 lead, Panteliodis walked right fielder Collin Kuhn before giving up a two-run blast to second baseman Bo Bingham.
Panteliodis gave up back-to-back hits in the seventh before O’Sullivan called upon Jeff Barfield, who proceeded to surrender a three-run homer to Kuhn.
Gators leadoff hitter Nolan Fontana was a catalyst for the UF offense on Friday, going 2 for 4 and scoring two runs. But Florida struggled to string together hits at the right times, managing just three runs on eight hits against Arkansas starter Drew Smyly (6-0, 2.22 ERA).
Smyly allowed three runs on eight hits in seven innings, but he escaped jams by striking out 10 Gators. Smyly surprised Florida by throwing off-speed pitches when behind in the count and even throwing breaking balls out of the strike zone on full counts.
“He made some great pitches tonight to keep us off balance,” said Zunino, who hit his third home run in the last two games on Friday.
First baseman Preston Tucker and designated hitter Austin Maddox – the meat of Florida’s lineup – combined to go 0 for 8 in the game. With runners on second and third and two outs in the fifth, Maddox flew out to center.
That at-bat summarized Florida’s struggles, but O’Sullivan is not blaming his team.
“I don’t think it’s so much our hitters. I think it’s more facing a guy on Friday night who has been really successful against a lot of teams,” O’Sullivan said. “It’s just one of those nights. He just made some pitches.”
The Gators will try to recover on Saturday against the Razorbacks at 1 p.m.
