Tuesday night, Josh Tobias watched his third-inning solo home run sail into the filled left-field bleachers longer than he normally would.
He had good reason. His first home run since May 11, 2013, gave Florida (14-7, 2-1 Southeastern Conference) a one-run lead against No. 2 Florida State (17-3, 5-1 Atlantic Coast Conference).
His defensive play in the top-half of the inning kept the Seminoles off the scoreboard after loading the bases with no outs. Tobias, hampered by a torn foot ligament in 2013, impacted Florida’s 3-1 win against Florida State (17-3) at McKethan Stadium in more ways than one.
“It felt really good,” Tobias said. “I saw a good pitch to see and I just put the barrel on it. I wasn’t trying to do too much.”
That play ending the Seminoles’ rally in the third inning shows up in the box score as a 5-3 putout to strand three runners, but it wasn’t just the typical ground out. Tobias, playing a deep third base, moved to his right to snag John Nogowski’s ground ball, tried stepping on the bag before firing a throw across the diamond to first baseman Braden Mattson.
“I was going to try and tag the base at third, but I slipped,” Tobias said. “I knew Nogowski wasn’t very fast, so I was like, ‘I got a chance to throw him out,’ and I did.”
Florida starter Danny Young allowed two singles and gave up a walk to load the bases for Florida State’s three through five hitters — D.J. Stewart, Brett Knief and Nogowski. Tobias called it a sticky situation. Young thought otherwise.
He knew the Florida State lineup after tossing four relief innings against the in-state rival in Jacksonville last year. He found out Monday from coach Kevin O’Sullivan that he would be starting. A logical choice given the sophomore didn’t see any action in the Gators’ series against Arkansas last weekend.
“I just got to make a pitch. Stewart was up and I got him to fly out, thank God,” Young said.
Young struck Knief out looking with an inside fastball before inducing Nogowski to ground out to third.
Brizuela tied the game in the sixth on a solo home run off reliever Aaron Rhodes that hit the right-field scoreboard. Florida responded in the bottom half with a RBI triple by Harrison Bader down the right-field line and a sacrifice fly by Taylor Gushue.
The game, played in front of a crowd of 5,657, tied the 10th-largest announced attendance ever at McKethan. It moved at a brisk pace unusual for this in-state matchup where O’Sullivan and Florida State coach Mike Martin love using their mound visits.
Games fly by when the pitching holds a team to one or fewer run for the seventh time in a month, and the offense provides the timely hits that have defined this stretch of eight wins in the last nine games.
“We’ve been playing better. I am not going to sugarcoat things,” O’Sullivan said.
“If I don’t think we’re playing better I would tell you. If I don’t think the at-bats are getting better I would tell you that too.
“This past weekend, against a really good Arkansas team, I thought our bats were getting better. I still believe that. We got a long way to go. I think this team is confident. I think they’re having fun right now. Obviously it’s very early in the year, but I do like how we’re playing.”
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Josh Tobias bats during Florida’s 3-1 win against Florida State on March 18.
