The Gators got what they had been waiting all season for on Saturday: last year’s version of Jonathon Crawford.
The junior right-hander threw a complete-game shutout and struck out a season-high eight batters as Florida (12-16, 3-5 Southeastern Conference) pulled even in its series with a 7-0 win against No. 11 Ole Miss (23-5, 4-4 SEC) on Saturday at McKethan Stadium.
“I had a lot of confidence in my stuff today,” Crawford said. “Just went out there and attacked.”
Crawford began the season as Florida’s No. 1 starter, but was replaced by freshman Jay Carmichael and moved to Saturday prior to the beginning of SEC play. In his previous two starts, Crawford had given up 11 runs in 12 innings and was yet to throw seven innings in 2013.
On Saturday, the Rebels only hit the ball in the outfield six times against Crawford as they hit two singles and flew out four times.
“His misses were small,” coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “He didn’t miss in the middle of the plate, which he had been doing the last couple weeks.
Crawford stranded a runner on third in the top of the fourth as he threw his slider to strike out Rebels catcher Stuart Turner, who entered Saturday hitting .444 on the season with an on-base percentage of .491.
“He located,” O’Sullivan said. “Simple as that. He got on top of his slider. His arm angle was a little higher and made some big pitches.”
The bottom of the UF order gave Crawford an early lead to work with in the second inning. Justin Shafer and Vickash Ramjit both reached on infield hits. Left fielder Connor Mitchell drove in Shafer with a single to right and freshman designated hitter Mike Fahrman made it 3-0 with a two-run double down the first-base line for the first hit of his career.
In the top of the sixth, Crawford ran into his only serious trouble on the day. After retiring the first two batters of the inning he walked left fielder Tanner Mathis two pitches after exchanging words with him when Mathis pretended to get hit by a pitch. Ball three in the at-bat was a 97-mph fastball over Mathis’ head.
Following the walk, play was stopped as the UF dugout exchanged words with Ole Miss third-base coach Cliff Godwin. Rebels manager Mike Bianco then left the dugout to argue with the third-base umpire after Godwin was issued a warning.
When play resumed, Crawford gave up a single to center fielder Auston Bousfield and walked shortstop Austin Anderson to load the bases for Turner. Once again, Crawford struck out Turner swinging on a slider to get out of the inning.
Freshman center fielder Harrison Bader wasn’t around to watch Crawford last year, but was happy to see him regain his old form.
“It’s huge,” Bader said. “To even the series, that’ll take us into tomorrow for sure.”
Bader followed the heated top of the inning by extending the Florida lead to 4-0 in the bottom of the sixth with a leadoff home run to left field — the first of his career.
The Gators would tack on two more runs in the sixth on a single from Zack Powers to plate Shafer and an RBI groundout from Mitchell.
As good as Crawford was on Saturday, he hinted that the best is yet to come.
“It’s really easy to pitch with two pitches instead of one,” Crawford said. “So that’s great. Now I just got to get my changeup going so I can pitch with three. It’s just another weapon in my arsenal.”
Contact Josh Jurnovoy at jjurnovoy@alligator.org.
Right-hander Jonathon Crawford throws a pitch during Florida’s 8-2 loss to Florida Gulf Coast on Feb 22 at McKethan Stadium. Selected 20th by the Detroit Tigers in the first round of the MLB Draft on Thursday, Crawford is the highest Florida pitcher taken since John Burke went sixth to the Houston Astros in 1991.
