Jay Carmichael finally met his match on Friday night.
The Gators’ freshman right-hander had the first subpar outing of his career on Friday as Florida (11-16, 2-5 Southeastern Conference) fell to No. 12 Ole Miss (23-4, 4-3 SEC), 4-3, at McKethan Stadium.
“Jay kind of struggled there,” left-handed reliever Daniel Gibson said. “Kind of uncharacteristic of him.”
In his previous three appearances, Carmichael allowed three runs in 16.1 innings. Two of those outings came against No. 8 Kentucky and Tennessee.
Prior to Friday, he led the Gators with an ERA of 1.88 and an opponent batting average of .167.
Carmichael gave up a run in the first inning for the first time in a start when Rebels leadoff man Tanner Mathis began the game with a double to left-center field. He advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Auston Bousfield and scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from shortstop Austin Anderson.
The Rebels added a run in the fourth as right fielder Will Jamison scored from second on a Carmichael wild pitch.
Carmichael struggled with his control throughout the night. In the 28.2 innings he threw before Friday, he had walked and hit a combined 13 batters. Against the Rebels, he nearly reached half of that number.
“He gave up four walks and hit two guys,” O’Sullivan said. “That was really the story of his outing.
After Florida tied the game in the bottom of the fourth, Ole Miss regained the lead in the top of the fifth. Anderson led off with a single and advanced to third following a Stuart Turner walk and sac bunt from Andrew Mistone. Daniel Gibson then came in to relieve Carmichael and gave up a sac fly to Sikes Orvis.
Gibson strong in relief: After giving up the runner he inherited from Carmichael, Gibson proceeded to give Florida its second strong long-relief performance in as many days.
“Just throwing strikes early,” Gibson said. “My fastball and my slider were working pretty well tonight. Just mixing it up. Just trusting the defense. Same thing we’ve been preaching all year.”
The junior left-hander threw four shutout innings while allowing just two hits and striking out three batters.
“I just had to get my team back in there,” Gibson said. “You can’t really focus too much on the negative outcomes at the plate or the at-bats that didn’t go our way, especially when you’re on the mound. You just have to go out there and try to get your team back in there to keep swinging.”
In 13 appearances heading into Friday, Gibson had an ERA of 4.15. In 13 innings, he had allowed six runs—only two less than he gave up during the entire 2012 season when his ERA was 2.96. O’Sullivan said it was good to see Gibson look as dominant as he did for most of last season.
“He needed to do that,” O’Sullivan said. “Obviously when you go to your bullpen in the fifth, you need someone to stop them. He did a nice job tonight.”
Contact Josh Jurnovoy at jjurnovoy@alligator.org.
Freshman Jay Carmichael warms up between innings during UF’s 8-2 loss to Florida Gulf Coast on Feb. 22. Carmichael walked four and hit two batters in Florida's 4-3 loss to Ole Miss on Friday.
