Florida simply didn’t capitalize early.
Mike Rivera, who fouled off two pitches after working a 2-0 count, grounded out with the bases loaded to end a scoreless first inning.
Then on a 2-0 count with the bags full in the third, Ryan Larson bounced into a fielder’s choice to conclude an empty offensive frame.
The lack of clutch hitting, paired with a season-high three errors, led to the No. 1 Gators (43-10, 18-9 Southeastern Conference) 5-4 loss to No. 8 LSU on Friday night in Baton Rouge.
“We just made too many mistakes,” UF coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “The first inning was the one that hurt. We had the bases loaded with a 2-0 count and didn’t take an aggressive enough swing.”
To make things even more difficult, Florida starting pitcher A.J. Puk left the game early. The 6-foot-7 left-hander dealt with a stomach ailment all night and exited after a leadoff walk in the third inning, forcing the Gators to use their bullpen early.
Puk, however, did receive a prior 1-0 lead on LSU’s sloppy defense in the second.
Jeremy Vasquez singled to reach base, and on a Dalton Guthrie bunt, Tigers catcher Jordan Romero picked it up and fired wildly to first. The ball skipped down the line and Vasquez scored easily.
LSU (38-16, 18-10 SEC) knotted the game at 1-1 in the third.
Puk walked Cole Freeman before leaving, prompting O’Sullivan to call on Dane Dunning in relief. The junior gave up back-to-back hits to score Freeman, a run that was charged to Puk, who didn’t allow a hit in his brief two innings.
In the fifth, LSU took a 2-1 lead.
Dunning surrendered leadoff singles before Romero chopped an RBI groundout. In his 3.2 innings, Dunning gave up three runs on a career-high seven hits.
But Rivera and the Gators retaliated in the sixth.
On a 2-0 count, the sophomore launched a solo home run to left to once again tie the game 2-2. The blast, Rivera’s ninth, gave him a share of the team lead with the injured Peter Alonso.
In the bottom half, LSU scored a pair of runs on Florida’s costly mistakes.
Dunning hung a two-out, 0-2 curveball to Freeman, who ripped an RBI double. Freeman advanced to third on third baseman Jonathan India’s throwing error before UF turned to left-hander Kirby Snead.
Snead gave up an infield single to Antoine Duplantis that scored Freeman and boosted the Tigers lead to 4-2.
“At the end of the day we just need to make a couple better two-strike pitches,” O’Sullivan said. “The one that hurts was the 0-2 pitch.”
Florida’s Nelson Maldonado laced a two-out, two-run single in the seventh to tie the game up once again, this time at 4-4.
But more miscues plagued the Gators in the eighth.
LSU put two runners on after first baseman Jeremy Vasquez dropped a routine throw and India couldn’t field a chopper that was scored a single.
O’Sullivan turned to closer Shaun Anderson, who recorded the second out before hanging a first pitch slider to Kramer Robertson, who singled to left to plate the eventual game-winning run.
Tigers closer Hunter Newman sat down UF in order in the ninth to record his fifth save and seal the win.
Despite losing the lead late in the game, O’Sullivan said Florida lost in the early innings.
“We did a lot of things wrong tonight,” he said. “It really doesn’t come down to Shaun’s inning.”
The Gators and Tigers square off in a doubleheader Saturday starting at noon to resume Game 1, which was postponed in the third inning Thursday due to inclement weather.
A radio broadcast contributed to this report.
Contact Patrick Pinak at ppinak@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @Pinakk12
Kevin O'Sullivan and Mike Rivera meet with Logan Shore on the mound during Florida's 4-3 win against Missouri on March 18, 2016, at McKethan Stadium.
