It took the Florida bats five innings to wake up.
Unfortunately for the Gators, that was five innings too late.
While Maryland (1-1) was busy jumping out to a 5-0 lead, Florida (1-1) struggled to get anything going at the plate, eventually falling 9-7 in the second game of the season at McKethan Stadium on Saturday.
“We just came out of the gate slow,” catcher Taylor Gushue said. “I don’t think we swung the bat aggressively the first five innings.”
The Gators struggled against the Terrapins’ freshman pitcher Mike Shawaryn, who made his college debut on Saturday.
Featuring good command and a fastball that sat in the low 90s, Shawaryn carved Florida’s lineup early in the game, setting down 13 of the Gators’ first 16 batters.
“Our timing wasn’t down completely,” center fielder Buddy Reed said.
The Gators started their own freshman pitcher, Brett Morales, but he did not have the same kind of success Shawaryn did.
The Tampa native struggled from the moment he took the mound, giving up a single and a walk to start the game before a double by Kevin Martir gave the Terrapins their first lead of the game.
“He’s an emotionless kind of dude,” Gushue said. “He was that today. I guess he didn’t have his best stuff.”
Morales continued his struggles through the rest of his short debut, surrendering one run in the second inning and two in the third. He finished the game with 3.1 innings pitched with five runs on five hits.
“He’s a freshman,” Gushue said. “It was his first time, and he’s going to come out even stronger next time. He got that experience and he’s going to be even better for us next time.
Other freshmen who came in after Morales had more success.
A.J. Puk, a 6-foot-7 left-hander who started the game as the designated hitter, pitched 2.2 innings of relief of Morales. The Iowa native surrendered one run and struck out three while on the mound and went 1 for 2 at the plate.
“It was a good first outing for me,” Puk said.
“I was a little nervous coming up for the first time, but once I stepped in the box, I was pretty relaxed.”
Coach Kevin O’Sullivan also brought in freshman Duane Dunning to pitch the ninth, and Dunning recorded the final two outs.
Dunning would have been in line for the win if Florida completed the comeback it started.
The Gators got on the board for the first time in the sixth inning thanks to the Terrapins’ mistakes.
UF loaded the bases on a walk to second baseman Casey Turgeon, a single by Gushue and a pitch hitting first baseman Peter Alonso, who replaced starter Zack Powers.
Reliever Tayler Stiles threw a wild pitch that scored Turgeon from third, and third baseman Jose Cuas committed an error on a ground ball by third baseman Justin Shafer, scoring another run.
Transfer Braden Mattson notched his first hit with Florida, notching the third run in the inning.
The Gators tacked on another run in the seventh on another wild pitch, then nearly tied the game in the eighth inning.
After Shafer was hit by a pitch, pinch-hitter Jason Lombardozzi walked and freshman John Sternagel recorded an infield hit, Reed blooped a single into left field to score two runs.
Florida scored again on a Richie Martin single to cut the deficit to one, but the Gators could not overcome that last hurdle.
“They’re young and they’ll learn,” O’Sullivan said. “The positive that we’ll pull out of tonight is that they battled back. We got the tying run to the plate there in the ninth. Those experiences will help them down the road.”
Follow Adam Lichtenstein on Twitter @alichtenstein24
Ryan Larson stands at the plate during No. 20 Florida's 9-7 loss against Maryland on Feb. 15.
