Alex Faedo flirted with perfection on Saturday night.
For 6.1 innings, Harvard wasn’t able to do anything against the sophomore right hander. But Josh Ellis ended Faedo’s bid with a bloop single that UF shortstop Dalton Guthrie dove for but couldn’t come up with it.
And other than allowing a one-out double to Trent Bryan in the ninth, Faedo was masterful striking out a career-high 13 batters in 8.1 innings — also a career-high — as No. 1 Florida beat Harvard in Game 2 of the team’s doubleheader, 3-1. UF took the first game 9-2.
With the pair of wins, the Gators have now won 11 in a row and completed a weekend sweep over an Ivy League team for the second week in a row.
“Alex, what can you say? He was lights out again,” UF coach Kevin O’Sullivan said.
Added junior first baseman Peter Alonso: “This was incredible, he shoved today,” he said. “That was a really, really special outing and it was really fun to watch on defense.”
After Ellis got on with his bloop single and stole second, Nick Horvath — who played in center field for Buddy Reed on Saturday — came up with his second crucial defensive play of the season.
Patrick McColl hit a ball to shallow center with Ellis on second. Horvath dove and caught the ball and threw a dart to Dalton Guthrie at second base to double up Ellis and end Harvard’s scoring threat.
“Horvath’s play, I think that saved the game,” Faedo said. “I think that won it for us because that gave us all the energy going into the bottom half of the inning.”
While Faedo was dominant for the Gators, Harvard starting pitcher Nick Gruener matched his intensity as well. Gruener baffled Florida’s lineup for six innings before UF’s offense was finally able to figure him out.
After back-to-back singles from Peter Alonso — who went a combined 8-for-10 with 5 RBIs in the series — and Jeremy Vasquez, Mike Rivera sacrificed them over for Nelson Maldonado.
The freshman outfielder ripped a two-RBI double to right center field giving Florida a 2-0 lead. The double capped off a day where Maldonado hit his first career home run in the first game, while driving in the go-ahead runs.
“The home run definitely lightened up the mood for me,” Maldonado said. “... (I) just had to put the ball in play and get the ball in the air at least deep enough to score the man on third and I got lucky with the gap.”
Florida (17-1) added one more run on a squeeze play by Horvath. O’Sullivan called over Horvath during the at-bat to put the squeeze on because he was struggling to hit Gruener’s slider.
“A lot of the time you have safety squeezes but with the infield playing in, it didn’t give us that luxury,” O’Sullivan said. “... I think that’s the first time in nine years I’ve put a squeeze on.”
Faedo (4-0) went back to the mound for the ninth inning looking for his first complete game of his career. He got the first out of the inning before Bryan doubled, which ended his night. The Tampa native wanted to finish the game, but O’Sullivan didn’t want to go way over the 100-pitch threshold.
“I did, but I understand. It’s the fourth week of the season, so it’s not that big of a deal to be honestly,” Faedo said. “Sully told me going (into the ninth inning), don’t try not to go over 100 (pitches) and I gave up a hit and went over 100. It’s my fault.”
Harvard (2-5) scored a run off of Kirby Snead, but Snead finished off the game completing the sweep.
Florida next hosts rival Florida State on Tuesday at 7 p.m.
Contact Luis Torres at ltorres@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @LFTorresIII.
Alex Faedo pitches during Florida's 12-3 win against Florida Gulf Coast on Feb. 21, 2016, at McKethan Stadium.
