Florida’s quest for a seventh Southeastern Conference tournament championship begins this week as the top-seeded Gators descend upon Hoover Metropolitan Stadium.
The Gators’ first pitch of this year’s tournament is Wednesday at 5:30 p.m., and UF will face the winner of Tuesday’s eight-nine matchup featuring Alabama and Kentucky — the Gators’ seed affords them a first round bye. The first four rounds are double elimination to get the field down to four teams before the final three games of the tournament are played in a standard single elimination win-or-go-home format.
With the 13th SEC regular season championship in school history already clinched, Florida (37-19, 21-9 SEC) failed to sweep eastern division foe Tennessee (31-22, 12-18 SEC) losing 7-5 to close out the 2014 regular season over the weekend.
With nothing to play for, Florida trotted out irregular players in its starting lineup like catcher Mike Fahrman, left fielder Ryan Larson, second baseman Jason Lombardozzi and third baseman Josh Tobias. Regular second baseman Casey Turgeon got the day off for the first time all season.
Tobias — who had started only one game since March 23 — made his presence felt in a big way with a tremendous home run to lead off the third inning that soared over the left-field fence. It was his second home run this season and the fifth of his UF career.
Tobias’ homer was the second of two solo shots in consecutive innings for Florida — the first was from Gushue playing from the DH spot in the lineup for the ninth time this season. Despite the two runs, the Gators still found themselves behind 4-2 after three innings.
UF could have added another run in the third after a Harrison Bader flyout to left field. Larson attempted to score from third base, but instead of sliding into home he attempted to step on the plate that was blocked by the left foot of Tennessee catcher Taylor Schultz and Larson became the last out of the inning.
Two innings later in the top of the fifth, the Gators would add three runs to their total, and take a 5-4 lead thanks to two RBI doubles. The first was laced into center field by shortstop Richie Martin and scored Tobias. The second was a Gushue shot down the left-field line two batters later that scored Bader as well as Martin. It was Gushue’s second and third RBIs of the game.
Tennessee would answer back with offensive firepower of its own in its half of the fifth on two RBI singles and a sacrifice fly.
From then on, Florida advanced two baserunners all the way to third base but was unable to bring them home.
With the victory, the Volunteers clinched a berth in the SEC tournament for the first time in seven years. In that 2007 tournament, Tennessee was an eight seed that upset the top-ranked in-state rival Vanderbilt in the first round before being knocked out of the double elimination tournament. The first loss was to Ole Miss by the score of 6-3, the second was in the rematch with Vanderbilt, a 15-2 shellacking.
Follow Richard Johnson on Twitter @RagjUF
Josh Tobias throws to first base against Georgia Tech on June 3, 2012, at McKethan Stadium.
