HOOVER, Ala. — For the second time this season, a coach from the
Southeastern Conference compared right-hander Hudson Randall to one
of MLB’s all-time greats.
“He’s Greg Maddux,” said Alabama coach Mitch Gaspard after UF’s
sophomore shutdown the Crimson Tide on Thursday at the SEC
Tournament.
“He
keeps the ball down and makes pitches,” Gaspard added. “It’s why he
starts on Friday night for one of the best pitching staffs in the
country. It was a very dominant performance by Florida today.”
The
Gators (43-15) redheaded ace rebounded from two consecutive rough
outings to stifle the Tide, leading UF to a 6-0 shutout in its
second game in the conference tournament in Regions Park.
Randall tossed eight dominant innings and scattered four hits and
one walk, capturing his first win since April 29. The All-SEC
second team performer walked the leadoff man for the second
straight start, but he used a suffocating sinker and deceiving
change-up to frustrate Alabama (33-25).
“All my pitches were working for me. I was getting ahead in the
count,” Randall said.
With pinpoint command — 18 first-pitch strikes — Randall pitched at
least six innings for the 11th time this season. The last two outs
for the sophomore were recorded via strikeout — his only two
punch-outs on the afternoon.
In
his young career Randall has absolutely owned the Tide, throwing
21.1 scoreless innings.
“Yeah, I've had two good outings against them this year,” he said
gushingly when asked about his dominance over Alabama. “I took it
upon myself to go as deep as I could.”
The
sophomore was again backed by a solid defense, as the Crimson Tide
played pepper with UF’s infield, hitting into three double
plays.
“It's fun for us,” senior second baseman Josh Adams said. “It keeps
us in the game. We know Huddy is going to get a lot of ground
balls, and we'll have an opportunity to turn a lot of double
plays.”
The
Gators got on the board early when Bryson Smith — marred in a 5 for
44 slump — led off the game with a stand-up double. Smith later
scored on an RBI groundout, and Florida added another run when
Adams hit a sac fly.
“They just really had there way today,” Gaspard said. “It started
from the first pitch when Smith smoked a ball into the gap.”
The
center fielder dazzled all day, tracking down two deep fly balls in
the gap while knocking a career-high four hits with three
RBIs.
“Smith I thought had been pressing lately, and I told him he was
going to stay at the top of the order,” coach Kevin O’Sullivan
said. “I just wanted him to relax. We trusted him and had a lot of
confidence in him, and it was a great day for him.”
After getting a day off Wednesday, left fielder Daniel Pigott
bounced back with his second four-hit game this season.
The
junior laced a double, triple and two singles, scoring on two of
Smith’s three run-scoring hits.
Pigott had hit just .178 (5-28) in his last seven SEC games and
said he didn’t know if the day off helped, but that it definitely
worked out today.
Florida bullied Alabama starter Adam Morgan for the second time
this season, plating five of its six runs off the left-hander.
The
Gators also played a new version of small ball, stealing three
bases — two by Pigott — for the first time in a conference game all
year.
“You just try to develop another dynamic to your offense,”
O’Sullivan said. “We want to be able to do multiple things and that
was the focus coming in.”
The
Gators earned a day off Friday and will play again Saturday
at approximately 1:30 p.m.
