Florida’s bats still haven’t arrived in Oxford, Miss., and Kevin O’Sullivan isn’t entirely surprised.
“The bottom line is this has been happening for a while,” Florida’s coach said. “Our approach has not been good for the last couple weeks and we kind of got what we deserved.”
After six games of Southeastern Conference play, the No. 1 Gators (23-3, 5-2 SEC) entered Friday night’s meeting with the No. 16 Rebels (19-7, 4-3 SEC) batting .253 against conference foes. It finally caught up to them.
They’d been winning close games but couldn’t overcome a strong outing by Ole Miss starter Bobby Wahl in a 3-0 defeat, the first time the Gators have been shut out since March 8 last season against Georgia Southern.
Friday started rough for UF starter Hudson Randall. He was knocked around in the first by a potent Ole Miss lineup, highlighted by a two-run homer to right by Rebels senior Matt Snyder. As his homer hit the student section, the crowd tossed confetti into the air in unison.
The Rebels wouldn’t score another run after the first but it didn’t matter.
Florida had just three hits and six base runners during the evening, negating an otherwise solid outing by Randall and a combined two innings of one-hit ball by freshmen Bobby Poyner and Ryan Harris.
“We’ve just got to do a better job of having good at-bats,” O’Sullivan said. “It’s as simple as that. I thought we had good gameplan going in. We probably didn’t execute it as well as we wanted to.”
Wahl had his way with Florida’s heralded bats.
The sophomore right-hander gave up just two hits in an eight-inning outing. He struck out six and punched Gators out despite often falling behind in counts.
“Against good pitchers you have to do a better job and throw the bat head and make good contact on fastballs,” O’Sullivan said. “We weren’t on time.”
Florida’s offensive woes were summed up in the ninth inning. Senior center fielder Daniel Pigott tripled to open the inning and with Florida’s version of Murderer’s Row behind him, chances for a rally looked promising. But Preston Tucker struck out, Mike Zunino flied out to shallow right and Brian Johnson grounded out to short stop.
The shutout preserved.
“Our veteran hitters have to swing the bat better,” O’Sullivan said. “We’ve got to do better in offensive counts.”
Mississippi's Blake Newalu (6) steals second as the ball gets past Florida's Caey Turgeon (2) during a college baseball game in Oxford, Miss. on Friday, March 30, 2012. (AP Photo/Oxford Eagle, Bruce Newman)
