The Gators had a chance to go for the sweep on Sunday.
Unfortunately for them, they didn’t face Tennessee’s No. 3 pitcher.
Senior right-hand Zack Godley stymied the Florida lineup with a complete game as Tennessee (18-24, 6-15 Southeastern Conference) salvaged the final game of the weekend series at McKethan Stadium, 4-2.
“Today you have to tip your hat to Godley,” coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “He did a really good job."
Godley entered the weekend with a 2.99 ERA and was third in the conference in strikeouts in SEC play.
However, Tennessee coach Dave Serrano decided to throw the senior right-hander on Sunday even though Friday starter Aaron Quillen and Saturday starter Nick Williams entered the weekend with ERAs of 5.52 and 5.28 respectively.
Serrano said Godley had struggled earlier in weekends, and he likes being able to match him up against the opposition’s third starter—especially if the Volunteers can steal one of the first two games of a series.
“On Sundays, he’s our closer, he’s our middle guy and he’s our stopper,” Serrano said.
After the first inning, Godley threw eight scoreless innings and allowed just four hits.
Gators’ second baseman Casey Turgeon singled with one out in the first, and right fielder Justin Shafer drove him in two at-bats later with a triple to the corner in down the right-field line. Zack Powers followed with a walk and then Vickash Ramjit drove in Shafer with an infield single to shortstop.
“I usually have a little bit of jitters going into the first inning,” Godley said. “… I have to work through that inning all the time. When they came in and got that one big hit down the line, I knew all I had to do was keep working and the guys would help me out.”
Godley didn’t allow an extra base hit the rest of the game. He retired 16 of the last 18 batters he faced. It was his third Sunday complete game in SEC play.
UF left fielder Harrison Bader hit a one-out single to center in the bottom of the fourth and advanced to third after groundout and a wild pitch. He was stranded there to end the inning and was the last player the Gators would have in scoring position.
“My curveball was pretty good today,” Godley said. “I was locating my fastball all right. I left it up a couple times and that was when they got big hits. My curveball worked out really well because I could throw it where I wanted to when I wanted to and that helped me out a lot.”
After scoring 19 runs in two games before Game 2 of their series with the Volunteers, the Gators only crossed the plate five times in their last two games.
Florida (25-20, 12-9 SEC) had 12 at-bats that lasted just one or two pitches, and while O’Sullivan often preaches and aggressive approach at the plate, he said he’d like to see more patience moving forward.
"We're swinging early,” O’Sullivan said. “There are two things offensively that was a little disappointing today. We swung at a lot of pitches early in the count and had soft contact. We didn't do much damage early in the count and we didn't make adjustments very well.”
Contact Josh Jurnovoy at jjurnovoy@alligator.com.
Freshman Richie Martin (12) bats in Florida’s 7-4 loss to Florida Gulf Coast on Feb. 24 at McKethan Stadium. Martin was the only player with more than one hit in the Gators' 4-2 loss to the Volunteers on Sunday.
