Patience proved to be a virtue for the Gators Sunday.
In a seven-run sixth inning, No. 4 Florida used its plate discipline to draw six-straight walks offered up by three different Bulldogs relief pitchers to break the game open in an eventual 9-3 victory over Georgia to earn the series sweep.
“They just didn’t have command and we were patient at the plate and made things happen,” shortstop Nolan Fontana said. “They just were scattering balls everywhere.”
The win allowed UF to keep pace with South Carolina, which swept Arkansas during the weekend, for first place in the SEC.
Before Sunday’s big frame, the Gators’ bats had been struggling.
They had scored just eight runs (six earned) combined in the first two games of the series and only managed two through five innings before Georgia’s meltdown in the sixth.
The Bulldogs walked six-straight hitters in the frame, four of them coming with the bases loaded. At one point Georgia’s relief pitchers had thrown 15 straight balls as they struggled to find the plate.
“I don’t even want to talk about it, because I don’t want to jinks it. That’s an awful feeling,” coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “It’s tough to even watch the other team go through that. Nobody is out there trying to throw balls.”
Bryson Smith, who grew up just 20 minutes away from Georgia’s campus, then capped the inning off with a two-run single to right field to give UF a 9-1 lead in the sixth.
“It was really special. I was a (Georgia) fan up until last year when I committed,” Smith said. “My family is down here and it was kind of tough for them to pull against Georgia, so it was cool to be a part of.”
Although UF pitcher Brian Johnson limited the Bulldogs to just one run in 5.2 innings, he labored. He allowed a runner to get into scoring position in four of the six innings he threw in, but Johnson escaped most of the jams.
After being penciled into the batting order during his last three starts on the mound, O’Sullivan opted to allow the freshman pitcher to focus on his pitching Sunday and didn’t allow him to hit.
“It’s really not too tough doing both, but I felt like I could cool off and get my breath in between innings because it was kind of hot out there today,” Johnson said.
In relief for Johnson, the bullpen continued its impressive series. Relievers Jeff Barfield and Anthony DeSclafani shut down the Bulldogs. The bullpen did not allow an earned run in 10.2 innings during the weekend series after giving up six last weekend against Alabama.
“We’ve got three of those guys going out of the bullpen. You’ve got (Greg) Larson who has been pitching well as of late, Barfield who has been good as of late and now we got DeSclafani going too. If we can bridge that gap to (Kevin) Chapman, I like how the staff is shaping up.”
