William Shakespeare once compared his beloved to a summer’s day. Michael Byrne’s 2018 season could be compared to something more like a sturdy dam.
At the end of the seventh inning, Arkansas starter Blaine Knight was the first to meet his teammates at the mouth of the Razorbacks’ dugout. After being removed from the game just one out away from completing seven innings of work, his defense got the job done, as it ended Florida’s one-run inning and shut the door on a potential Gators comeback.
If Deacon Liput had any doubts hanging over his head coming into Wednesday night’s game against Jacksonville, he let them all blow away with the gusty winds at McKethan Stadium.
The ball seemed to pause in the air, as if painted onto the Carolina-blue, jet exhaust-scarred sky. Then it descended.
Bright rays of sunshine, a nice breeze and a partly cloudy sky engulfed Gainesville on Tuesday evening, right around the time Florida’s baseball team was supposed to have its first pitch. But a horrendous forecast earlier in the day forced UF to postpone its game against the Jacksonville Dolphins.
The No. 2 Gators baseball team went 3-1 over the past week, and the games couldn’t have been much more different from one another.
The ball rocketed off Jacob Olson’s bat like a satellite designed for orbit.
Gamecocks designated hitter Noah Campbell stared down the barrel of a 6-foot-6 human cannon and didn’t blink. On a 2-2 pitch to lead off the first inning, Campbell took a 94-mph fastball from Florida starting pitcher Jackson Kowar deep to right-center field.
Graham Lawson didn’t even look up.
Andrew Baker leaned forward with his hands on his knees. He oozed a confidence and swagger that would have made Muhammad Ali blush.
During the beginning of his career at UF, Gators center fielder Nick Horvath struggled in the batter's box. His average at the plate was below .200.
Nick Horvath stood tall on second base with his hand on his belt buckle. After the Gators center fielder sent a double to left center field that scored two Gator runners, he whipped out some familiar dance moves.
When Jordan Butler hit a grounder to the right side of the infield that scored Deacon Liput for the game-winning run, the freshman was mobbed by his teammates down the first-base line.
Florida starter Tyler Dyson recorded six strikeouts and gave up one unearned run in 6.1 innings pitched on Saturday in UF's 9-2 win over Rhode Island.
Brady Singer put on a show.
On a persistently breezy 53-degree night, the Gators faithful began to file out of the ballpark in bunches. After a quick 1-2-3 seventh inning from Knights reliever Eric Hepple, roughly a third of the 3,253 in attendance had had enough of the cold weather and UF’s cold bats.
Riding the high horse of a seven-game winning streak, UCF trampled over the kings of college baseball’s landscape on Tuesday.
It can be conveyed on a scorecard (FC5U, E5), but it can’t be explained or appreciated there. In the annals of Gators baseball individual plays, perhaps the strangest of them all — FC5U, E5 — now belongs to Wil Dalton.
Nick Horvath’s arm has more range than Madonna’s singing voice.
Wil Dalton was just getting started.
Solutions by The State News
