The home plate umpire pumped his first, and Florida Atlantic’s dugout erupted. Jacob Young appeared stunned in the batter’s box as Florida’s first loss in 11 days began to soak in.
While the Gator bullpen held the Owls scoreless for the final six innings of regulation, Florida failed to take advantage on offense. The 3-2 defeat became the second extra-inning disappointment of the year.
The Owls drew first blood early. After a pair of hits from their first two batters, left fielder Mitchell Hartigan’s sacrifice fly to deep center field notched the game’s first run before Florida saw the plate.
It didn’t take the Gators long to answer. The next inning, true freshman Colby Halter, who took third base after senior Kirby McMullen’s injury last Tuesday, hit his first collegiate home run. The line drive landed just right of the scoreboard and gave the Gators a 2-1 advantage.
FAU brought the game back to a deadlock in the top of the third, but then both offenses ground to a halt as the game developed into a pitcher’s duel.
Owls pitchers TJ Stuart and Hunter Cooley combined to retire 10 of 11 Florida batters following Halter’s home run as the Gators failed to record another hit until the sixth inning. A double play in the next at-bat erased the Jordan Butler double.
FAU’s pitching deserved some credit, but head coach Kevin O’Sullivan pointed out that his team’s effort frustrated him. The team looked uninspired on the field.
“For the life of me, I don’t understand,” O’Sullivan said. “We’re nine games in. We’ve had almost a year off from playing.”
But the Owls didn’t fare much better at the plate.
Florida grad transfer Trey Van Der Weide threw three scoreless innings in relief as the maligned Gators bullpen dealt one of its best performances of the year. After Florida allowed three or more runs in the final four innings in all but two games, the relievers teamed for six scoreless innings to give the bats breathing room.
Finally, after an extra inning, FAU caught a break.
With two outs, a routine ground ball slid straight under shortstop Josh Rivera’s glove and into the outfield. Suddenly, an inning the Owls had men on the corners in an inning that seemed destined to be over.
The error wasn’t Rivera’s first of the year — or even his first Wednesday after an errant throw to first in the ninth. He owned the worst fielding percentage on the team before Wednesday’s contest as he sat at just .862 after four errors in previous games.
No other Gator with more than four starts fielded below .933 the first eight games.
“We’re having some issues there at short we need to shore up defensively,” O’Sullivan said even though he refused to name any player.
The next batter, left fielder Mitchell Hartigan, delivered. He roped a line drive off reliever Franco Aleman into center field to tally the winning run, the first one scored in more than two hours.
The Gators still had a chance to pull even, but earned two quick outs to begin the bottom of the frame. Young’s final stand left the third-year outfielder and the rest of Gainesville stunned as the Owls began to celebrate.
The Gators will host Florida A&M for a three-game weekend series that opens Friday.
Contact Ryan Haley at rhaley@alligator.com or follow him on Twitter @ryan_dhaley
Ryan Haley, a UF journalism senior with a sports & media specialization from Jacksonville, Florida, is Summer 2022's Engagement Managing Editor. He grew up playing a bunch of different sports before settling on golf, following Rory McIlroy and all Philadelphia sports teams. He also loves all things fiction, reading, watching shows and movies and talking about whatever current story or character is in his head.
