GAME OVER
Miami fails to score the necessary amount of runs to win or send the game to extra innings, so by the rules of the game, the Gators come away with a win. They're very thankful to at least take one game in the series.
UF reliever Stephen Locke got one strike out, a ground out and a fly out to right to end the game.
MID NINTH
Three quick outs for the Gators. Miami has three more chances to come up with four runs, or this game is over.
END EIGHTH
The Gators got out of another huge jam with their third double play of the game. It's still a four-run lead, and it's looking good for them.
MID EIGHTH
Jon Townsend starts off the inning with a completely unexpected bunt down the third base line. It took Miami by surprise, and Townsend must be thrilled to get on base. The Gators' dugout went crazy right below me. I can't say I've ever seen a bunt single brought so much joy to a team.
Tignor lays down another bunt, this time a sacrifice. UF has Townsend in scoring position with den Dekker coming to the plate.
Miami replaces its pitcher, putting in lefty P.J. Fischer. This is his first appearance in the series. I forgot how bad Cool Ranch Doritos make your breath smell. Oh well. They still taste pretty good.
den Dekker reaches on an error by the third baseman, and now UF has two on with one out. Josh Adams, who hit an RBI-double earlier in the game, comes to the plate and hits the Gators' second bunt single of the inning. The move again caught the Hurricanes by surprise, and now UF has bases loaded with Cole Figueroa batting. The UM fans go silent as Figueroa steps in.
Figueroa takes the ball and smashes a grand slam over the left field wall. Rounding third, Figueroa points at the UF dugout. The UF fans and dugout are screaming as the Gators take a 6-2 lead.
The Miami fans have been completely deflated, and Brandon McArthur reaches first on a walk. Miami gets out of the inning, but the damage was more than done. Figueroa gives the Gators the boost they had been looking for all weekend, and they take a 6-2 lead into the bottom of the eighth.
END SEVENTH
This game is still tied. Matt den Dekker made a great catch out in center field to send the Hurricanes back out onto the field. Franklin looked good, pitching a flawless seventh inning. Heading into the eighth, the game is completely up for grabs. The bottom of the Gators' order is coming up.
Hampton Tignor is catching now, replacing Buddy Monroe (0-2), so maybe he can put a spark into the Gators' lineup.
MID SEVENTH
Miami puts in a new pitcher. Maybe the Gators will have more success on this guy. But the way this series has gone so far with Miami's bullpen, don't count on it.
Yeah. Bamberg strikes out looking. Pigott is up next, and makes himself a perfect 3-3 on the day with strikeouts. This time he goes down on four pitches. Joe Goodman of The Herald: "At least he swung." This Miami bullpen has made a habit of being untouchable.
Koronis, the new pitchers, strikes out the side. The Gators just can't touch him.
It's 2-2 after six and a half innings. You get the feeling that Miami is just waiting to pounce. Look for it to happen next inning.
END SIXTH
Toledo gives up a double to Miami's first batter, and Coach O'Sullivan comes out to have a chat. His day is done, and Tony Davis comes in to face his usual one batter, Yonder Alonso. Davis got Alonso out yesterday without a problem.
After getting ahead 1-2, Davis walks Alonso on the next three pitches. O'Sullivan walks out to the mound and yanks Davis from the game in favor of Clint Franklin.
As Franklin warms up, I go downstairs to get some food from the concession stands. The line for the shakes is so ridiculously long. It's probably a fifteen minute wait just to get one right now. The fans don't seem to care.
Alright, Franklin throws his first pitch and it nearly goes wild. Miami's Mark Sobolewski shows bunt, but can't convert. It doesn't much matter, as the Canes pull off a double steal. Franklin strikes out Sobolewski, but there's still runners on second and third with one out. Franklin gets the count full on Miami's next batter, then gets him to ground out to first base. Unfortunately for UF, the ground out scores a run, and we have a tie game, 2-2.
Pisani makes a great dig at second base to end the inning. Yesterday, he would have missed that ball. Today, he succeeds.
UF and UM are all tied a 2-2 after six innings. Folks, we have a game.
MID SIXTH
In between innings, they had the fans guess the longest movie of all time. The correct answer was "A Cure For Insomnia," an 85-hour long movie. According to Wikipedia, the only valid source reliable journalists use (kidding), "the movie has no plot, instead consisting of artist L. D. Groban reading his lengthy poem 'A Cure for Insomnia' over the course of three and a half days, spliced with occasional clips from heavy metal and pornographic videos." That would fill up about 10 standard DVDs. Thank goodness for Wikipedia.
With the second at-bat of the inning, Matt den Dekker breaks up Hernandez's no-hitter with a dinky ground ball. Tie goes to the runner, and den Dekker just oh-so-barely beat that ball to the bag. The Miami fans were not happy with the call, but from where I'm sitting it looked to be the right one. The Gators get their first hit of the day and possibly more.
Brandon Zimmerman of the Gainesville Sun mentioned the no-hitter in between innings, and we informed him he was going to ruin it. The Sun Sentinel's blog of the game mentioned the no-hitter after the fifth inning, and sure enough, the no-hitter ended two blog posts later.
Not only is the no-hitter over, but freshman Josh Adams comes in and hits a double, scoring den Dekker from first base. The Gators take a 2-1 lead, and you can't help but blame bad karma for people mentioning the no-hitter. I'm not superstitious about much, but you never ever mention a no-hitter or a perfect game until it happens. Never.
Figueroa lines out to third, and Adams just barely makes it back to second base in time, avoiding the double play. McArthur grounds out to end the inning, but UF is ahead 2-1.
END FIFTH
At the risk of jinxing it, this game is flying by. The game is halfway done in only an hour and 15 minutes. Of course, as I type that, Miami gets a single and the inning will not be three up, three down.
Miami moves the runner to second base with a sacrifice bunt and then moves him to third with a fly out to deep right field. Toledo escapes the inning, getting Miami's leadoff batter to check-swing into a harmless grounder right back to him.
After five, it's 1-1 with no sign of scoring in sight.
MID FIFTH
Supposedly, Pigott is fine after getting hit in the back yesterday, but you wouldn't know it from his batting average. He strikes out for the second time today.
Hernandez follows his strikeout of PIgott with a strikeout of Pisani. Could this be a three-strikeout inning?
No, it can't. Hernandez gets Townsend to ground out, and the inning. Hernandez has six strikeouts through five innings and looks great. Bad news for the Gators.
It's still a 1-1 tie halfway through the game.
END FOURTH
The guy sitting next to me - I think he's from InsideTheU.com - is eating a hot dog with a whole bunch of kraut on it. It smells really bad, but he seems to be enjoying it.
Toledo gets the first two batters of the inning to fly out to right field. Pigott is having the inning of his life out there, to be sure.
I don't know if it's been said yet, but Tommy Toledo's eyebrows are huge. I don't know if they help him pitch, but he finishes this half of the inning with a fly out to left field.
The Gators and 'Canes are still tied at 1-1 after four innings.
MID FOURTH
Another quick 1-2-3 inning for the Gators. They can't get the lead back with two fly outs and a strikeout. That's just not how the rules of baseball work.
END THIRD
Toledo gets his first strikeout of the game. True, it was on the 'Canes' No. 9 batter, but good for him.
While I'm typing the above sentence, UM leadoff man Blake Tekotte smacks a homer over the right field wall. No more fist pumps from Toledo, and this game is tied at one.
Miami second baseman Jemile Weeks takes a swing at the first pitch he sees from Toledo, and the bat flies out of his hands toward the Miami dugout. The crowd gasps and Tekotte gives one of those looks people make when they trip and hope no one saw it, and if they did it was really no big deal. UF fans laugh at him in the stands. Weeks can't seem to recover from the embarrassment and flies out to center field.
Toledo finishes the inning with a strikeout, but the damage was done on one pitch. UF and Miami are tied at one after three.
MID THIRD
Monroe and den Dekker ground out to short with the Gators' first two at-bats in the third inning. It does appear that much is going to happen in this inning for UF. As soon as I type that, freshman Josh Adams grounds out to the shortstop. A career inning for Miami shortstop Ryan Jackson, I'm sure.
The Gators can't add to their lead, but should be thankful for what they have - a 1-0 lead.
END SECOND
Miami gets on base to start the second inning with another walk. Toledo has three now in five batters. A laser of a single over third base gives the Hurricanes two on with no outs.
Miami's next batter flies out to center, and then Toledo gets another huge inning-ending double play, this time on a grounder to third base. Townsend steps on the bag and makes a perfect throw to McArthur for the 5-3 double play. I'm stunned that the Gators gotten out of these first two innings without a run scored on them.
With two innings done and 3/4 of my milkshake downed, UF is up 1-0.
MID SECOND
After watching The Miami Herald's Joe Goodman drink milkshakes for the last two days, I had to go get one. It's amazing. The flavor is called "Omaha Express" - possibly a reference to the location of the College World Series - and it's a chocolate mint flavor. On a pretty hot day in Miami, the line for the shakes is wrapping around the booth. It's completely worth it.
Anyway, back to baseball. Brandon McArthur starts the Gators' half of the inning with a ground out and DH Dustin Bamberg follows that up with a walk. Bamberg advances to second base on a wild pitch, and UF has a runner in scoring position for the first time today.
Jonathan Pigott fouls off five pitches before finally striking out swining. It was an incredibly long at-bat, but it winds up going Miami's way. It seems that most times with a long at-bat like that, the batter gets the best of the pitcher, but not this time.
Clayton Pisani, batting in the seventh spot for the first time all season, comes through with a ground ball to the third baseman. The ball misses the third baseman but it is ruled an error. It could have gone either way. Regardless, Bamberg scores from second and Pisani moves to second on the throw. UF has a 1-0 lead.
Third baseman Jon Townsend, in a huge batting funk right now (no hits since the season's first game), stays in that slump and strikes out swinging.
Still, the Gators have a 1-0 lead going into the bottom of the second. They should be happy they got that much.
END FIRST
Toledo starts the game by walking Miami's leadoff man, Blake Tekotte. Not the start he wanted at all. Tekotte then steals second and gets to third on a throwing error from Monroe. Definitely not the start the Gators wanted. Toledo gets a line out to third, holding Tekotte, but then walks Miami's No. 3 hitter. With runners at the corners, the Hurricanes ground into a 5-4-3 double play. Toeldo pumps his fist, happy to get out of the inning without surrendering a run.
In between innings, the Hurricanes did a promotion where their mascot, the Miami Maniac, found the fan in the stands most in need of a haircut and gave him a coupon for a free haircut from some place called "Sports Cuts." The slogan there? "Guys win." That's quite an interesting slogan for a barber shop. It doesn't appear to have anything to do with hair.
MID FIRST
Miami starts lefty Chris Hernandez, and he cruises through the Gators' top three batters. He got great help from his defense, with the third baseman picking a ball off an awkward hop, and the second baseman charging a grounder that bounced over Hernandez's head. Hernandez ended the inning with a strikeout of Cole Figueroa.
Looks like the batting order shakeup isn't doing very much to help UF's offense today.
PRE-GAME
They're reading off the names of kids from all over South Florida again. The poor public address announcer must hate this part of his day.
Some shakeups to UF's lineup tonight: usual left fielder Avery Barnes is out today, replaced by Josh Adams. Center fielder Matt den Dekker is starting in center field as usual, but will be the Gators' leadoff man. Adams bats second in Clayton Pisani's usual spot, as Pisani is moved down to No. 7 in the order-the same number on his uniform.
Dustin Bamberg will be UF's designated hitter today, and Jonathan Pigott is back in right field after being beaned yesterday and leaving the game. Buddy Monroe will catch for UF this afternoon, and starting on the mound is freshman sensation Tommy Toledo (1-0, 3.60 ERA).
No Internet troubles for me today, so I should be able to live blog the whole game without issue. Let's cross our fingers. About 15 minutes until the first pitch is thrown. Stay here for updates every half-inning.
