Daniel Pigott raced toward the left-field wall, jumped and caught a deep Tadd Bower shot that would have otherwise been a game-tying home run in the sixth inning.
Instead, Bower became one of 11 straight batters starter Hudson Randall retired during the middle of Friday night’s series opener against William & Mary.
“I don't think he knew that he caught it,” Gators coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “He went up and came down, he was kinda surprised. That was a heck of a catch.”
Behind solid defense and even better pitching, No. 1 Florida (5-1) held its ground in an eventual 4-1 win against William & Mary (2-3).
It all started because of Randall, who left his first start of the season last weekend unpleased because of some nerves. After giving up a few big hits early that included a third-inning Josh Smith home run, Randall settled in, throwing 57 of his 78 pitches for strikes while striking out four in his first decision of the season.
“I got a lot of easy outs later in the game,” Randall said. “I was running through it, back to where I feel comfortable.”
Using his slider early in counts to draw weak contact, he cruised easily through a 6.1-inning outing and handed the ball over to Austin Maddox, who has been Florida’s most dominant arm early this season.
Maddox retired eight of the Tribe’s nine final batters, allowing just a bloop double to right. He struck out four batters and threw 18 of his 23 pitches for strikes to notch his second save of the season.
“He’s a mud dog, that’s what we call him,” junior shortstop Nolan Fontana said. “He’s out there to get his and we know that he’s going to give us his best every time. He’s aggressive, and we like playing defense behind him.”
Opposing batters now have a .138 average against Maddox, and he has yet to allow a run in 8.2 innings of work.
Offensively, it was not an ideal night for the Gators. Mike Zunino opened the scoring in the first for Florida by plating Fontana on a sacrifice fly to right but UF then sputtered until a fifth-inning homer by senior center fielder Tyler Thompson. The Gators added two runs in the eighth inning due in large part to a walk and a throwing error by Tribe reliever Ryan Williams.
“For nine innings we didn't do a very good job offensively of making adjustments,” O’Sullivan said. “But it's a learning experience and like I said, that's what the early part of the season is for.”
The Tribe stretched left-handed starter Cole Shain to 100 pitches through six innings, just one fewer than Randall and Maddox combined for in nine.
History was put on hold as Gators senior right fielder Preston Tucker, who is tied with Brad Wilkerson for the school’s all-time career RBI record, went 0 for 4 on Friday night. Tucker appeared to be pressing, seeing just six pitches in his four trips to the plate.
“He got himself out a couple times [Friday], to be honest with you,” O’Sullivan said. “But he's got presence and he's one swing away from distancing us from them. It was just not the best of nights for him, but he'll be fine.”
