With the rain pouring down in the eighth inning of a tied game, Austin Maddox wiped the brim of his batting helmet and waited until he saw the pitch he liked.
After fouling off five balls in a nine-pitch at-bat, the freshman stayed back and sent a slider over the right-field fence to break the tie.
Maddox’s three-run homer gave No. 6 Florida (16-3, 3-0 Southeastern Conference) the separation it needed in a 4-1 victory over Mississippi State (11-9, 0-3 SEC) to clinch the series sweep on Sunday.
“I felt more comfortable after seeing more pitches,” Maddox said. “I got up there, battled, got a good pitch and put a good swing on it.”
Before Maddox’s blast, Florida struggled to get anything going offensively.
After scoring one in the second inning off a single from left fielder Jonathan Pigott, the Gators could only manage one hit until the three-run eighth inning.
Bulldogs reliever Caleb Reed came in for starter Nick Routt in the third and only gave up one run and one hit in 5.1 innings until Ben Bracewell was called onto the mound in the eighth and gave up the round-tripper to Maddox.
“Their relief pitcher (Reed) did a nice job,” UF coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “He’s got a different arm slot and it’s a little funky, and he threw a lot of off-speed pitches in fastball counts which is why he accounted for a lot of lazy fly-ball outs.”
With the bats quiet for most of the game, freshman pitcher Hudson Randall kept Florida in the game. In his first SEC start, he only allowed one run in 5.1 innings while striking out five hitters.
Following the solo home run and a single he gave up in the second, Randall settled down and didn’t allow a hit through his next three innings.
“I think he’s been throwing the ball good,” O’Sullivan said. “He probably wants back that 1-0 pitch to Thigpen, but other than that for him to last until the sixth inning and only give up one run – I thought he was outstanding.”
Mississippi State had its fair share of opportunities to take control of the game. The Bulldogs loaded the bases in the sixth and seventh innings, but could not get a run home.
Gators senior pitcher Jeff Barfield was called upon in the sixth with the bases loaded and struck out both of the batters he faced to end the threat.
“I kept telling myself that I couldn’t do anything about the runners on base – all I have to do is attack the hitter,” Barfield said. “I try to keep the runners out of my mind.”
Junior Kevin Chapman helped extinguish the seventh-inning jam with a strikeout, leaving the bases loaded for the second-straight inning.
Chapman struck out four in 2.1 scoreless innings after giving up his first two runs of the season on Saturday.
