Florida hadn’t lost a home game in 332 days.
But on Saturday night, freshman Jonathan India witnessed something he hadn’t been a part of yet — a loss at McKethan Stadium.
The No. 1 Gators’ (29-4, 8-3 Southeastern Conference) program-record home winning streak was snapped at 29 games, as No. 5 Mississippi handed them just their fourth loss all season, 10-4.
Down 9-3, Florida’s biggest chance to score came in the fifth inning.
India, who led off with a single, watched from third as the Gators wasted a golden opportunity — bases loaded with no outs.
But sophomore JJ Schwarz grounded into a 1-2-3 double play that wiped out the lead runner, and junior Peter Alonso struck out looking to end the empty threat.
“It’s baseball, and stuff doesn’t go our way all the time,” India said. “In that inning, it didn’t.”
UF starting pitcher Alex Faedo dug his team into too big a hole to climb out of.
In the first, the sophomore allowed three straight singles before hitting Gavin Collins to plate Mississippi State’s first run.
A batter later, Reid Humphreys ripped a two-run double to right-center field to push the Bulldogs’ lead to 3-0. Ryan Gridley added MSU’s fourth run of the inning on an RBI groundout.
In the third, Faedo fell into trouble again.
Faedo allowed two hits and a walk before serving up a grand slam to Cody Brown, giving Mississippi State (22-9-1, 7-4 SEC) an 8-0 advantage. Jake Mangum tacked on run No. 9 on an RBI triple to center field.
In what was his worst start of the season, Faedo allowed a career-high nine runs on 10 hits through five innings.
“It wasn’t the best start for Alex,” UF coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “But in his defense everything put in play was just kind of out of reach. It was just one of those weird nights.”
Florida found some life in the bottom half of the third.
With two on, junior Buddy Reed sent a home run into the bullpen beyond the right field fence, cutting MSU’s lead to 9-3.
“It gave us a little bit of life,” sophomore outfielder Jeremy Vasquez said. “But just the innings after that, we couldn’t get much going.”
The Gators added their fourth and final run on India’s RBI single in the eighth inning before Mississippi State scored on a sac fly in the ninth inning to put MSU up 10-4.
O’Sullivan said things just didn’t go Florida’s way.
“I felt like we were one or two hits away from maybe getting right back in this thing,” he said. “We hung right in there.”
Florida will look to take the series Sunday at 4 p.m. Junior lefthander A.J. Puk is scheduled to start on the mound.
Contact Patrick at ppinak@alligator.org and you can follow him on Twitter @Pinakk12.
Catcher Mike Rivera talks with pitcher Alex Faedo on the mound during Florida's 10-4 loss to Mississippi State on April 9, 2016, at McKethan Stadium.
