Seventeen pitches and a Mike Zunino home run are all Austin Maddox needed to earn his third victory of the season.
Maddox (3-2) tossed 2.1 perfect innings and fanned two in a 2-1 Florida (38-14, 16-11 Southeastern Conference) victory against Mississippi State (31-20, 13-14 SEC).
“I felt really good [Sunday], I was locating my stuff, I had my [velocity] back,” Maddox said.
The Gators closer, who made his first appearance since April 29 due to tendinitis, was one of five relievers coach Kevin O’Sullivan employed to take over for starter Karsten Whitson. Whitson lasted 3.1 innings, yielding two hits and one earned while walking five, hitting a batter and striking out four.
Florida’s bullpen pitched 5.2 scoreless frames against Mississippi State, giving up just one hit, walking four and striking out six. A solid outing Sunday boosted series totals to 12.2 innings pitched with five hits, no runs, eight walks and 15 strikeouts for the Gators relievers.
“[The relievers] are doing great, they’ve done great,” Zunino said. “There’s only so much you can say good about them because that’s all they’ve been doing. They come into tough situations and they get outs.”
Steven Rodriguez logged the most work out of the bullpen. He threw 39 pitches in two hitless innings, walked two batters and struck out three.
Maddox and Rodriguez pitched the final 4.1 frames, preserving a 1-1 tie that UF could not break.
Florida’s struggles at the plate in Saturday’s 2-0 loss continued in Sunday’s victory. UF only had two hits and one run through the first seven innings.
From the fourth inning through the seventh inning, Bulldogs pitchers Ross Mitchell and Caleb Reed retired 12 of the 13 Gators they faced.
“We’ve been hitting balls hard, but right at people,” Zunino said. “It was just one of those games where we have to keep squaring balls up and hopefully they’ll fall eventually.”
Zunino, like the rest of his teammates, was slumping when he stepped up to the plate with one out in the eighth. He was for 1 for 9 in the weekend series up to that point.
Then, Zunino reversed his fortunes.
The junior catcher sent a 2-1 fastball over the left-field wall for a solo home run, which put Florida ahead for good.
“I’m going to take that home run in the eighth and I’m going to sleep really well tonight,” coach Kevin O’Sullivan said.
Contact Joe Morgan at joemorgan@alligator.org.
Mike Zunino (right) celebrates his home run in the eighth inning with Brian Johnson on Sunday. The solo shot was Zunino's team-leading 13th of the season.
