It took 15 innings and nearly five hours before the Gators grabbed their first lead in a Saturday matinee that turned into a Saturday night affair.
A fielder’s choice ground ball from Casey Turgeon with the bases loaded in the top of the 15th scored Harrison Bader for the go-ahead run against Missouri (12-22, 4-13 Southeastern Conference). Bader reached on a fielding error from third baseman Shane Segovia to lead off the inning and advanced to third on a single from Cody Dent and walk from Richie Martin. Florida (22-18, 10-7 SEC) clinched the series with a 4-3 victory and extended its winning streak to a season-high eight games.
“This was a total team effort,” coach Kevin O’Sullivan told the Gator IMG Sports Network. “I couldn’t be more pleased with how we hung in there and battled all day.”
Missouri jumped out to an early lead just like the series opener when it scored four in the first in a game Florida won 8-6. The Tigers led by three runs after the second on Saturday. Florida left-hander Danny Young’s fourth conference start didn’t go as planned. The freshman lasted 2.1 innings and never established his fastball.
Seven pitchers after Young held the Tigers scoreless. Right-hander Aaron Rhodes, who impressed O’Sullivan during bullpen sessions this week, prevented a run from scoring from third with one out in the third inning. Freshman right-hander Eric Hanhold, out of the weekend rotation since March 24, retired all 10 batters he faced. Left-hander Daniel Gibson threw a career high 4.2 innings. Left-hander Bobby Poyner picked up the win by getting third-hole batter Dane Oppel to fly out to shortstop Cody Dent in the 14th.
“You look at the line Hanhold and Gibson threw eight innings of scoreless ball on the road in extra innings,” O’Sullivan said. “That was probably the key, but everyone was important.”
Turgeon drove in Richie Martin on a single in the third inning to score Florida’s first run Saturday. Although the Gators didn’t score until the seventh, every starter except third baseman Josh Tobias registered a hit. A groundball by Martin and a single by Turgeon brought in tied the score at three in the seventh.
Florida had runners in scoring position five of the next eight innings before breaking through in the 15th. Missouri right-hander Keaton Steele, who started at first base, entered in the seventh and didn’t leave until seven innings later.
It wasn’t pretty. Florida needed another standout performance from its bullpen. A second-straight comeback victory against Missouri featured Martin and Turgeon driving in all four runs. Yet, the Gators have an opportunity to sweep their second-straight conference opponent.
“The most important thing is we are getting wins,” O’Sullivan said. “To be honest with you, we haven’t played our best baseball recently. We’ve won some games where we have made more mistakes then we probably should, but we are going to focus on the positives.”
Freshman right-hander Tucker Simpson (1-1, 5.06) will likely start the finale Sunday at 1 p.m., O’Sullivan said during his post-game radio interview.
A radio broadcast contributed to this report.
Contact Adam Pincus at apincus@alligator.org.
Freshman outfielder Harrison Bader slides into home during Florida's 14-5 win against South Carolina on Saturday. Bader scored a run in the Gators' 7-1 win against the Owls on Tuesday.
