All Jonathan India could do was react.
When Auburn’s Luke Jarvis bounced a hard chopper down the third base line in the fourth inning, UF’s third baseman dove to his right.
The ball whizzed under his glove and into left field, letting Jay Estes race around the bases and score.
A day after falling 14-3 to the Tigers, the run proved to be the deciding one in Florida’s 2-1 loss to Auburn Saturday in Auburn, Alabama.
For the first time since 2013, the Gators (13-7) have lost their opening Southeastern Conference series. They finished that season 29-30.
Lost in the defeat was sophomore Brady Singer’s solid start.
Outside of surrendering the first run to Auburn (16-5) on two balks in the third inning and the second on a pair of fourth-inning doubles, Singer cruised for most of the game.
The right-hander yielded the two runs on five hits in seven strong innings, striking out four and walking two batters. He picked up his first loss of the season.
“He threw the ball on both sides of the plate, had a good slider going, threw a couple really quality changeups,” UF head coach Kevin O’Sullivan said in a release. “He certainly gave us a chance to win.”
But Singer’s outing was wasted because of an anemic amount of run support.
It’s a problem that’s been an all-too-common theme for the SEC’s worst hitting team, which entered Saturday at a .243 clip.
While Florida scratched across a run on a Deacon Liput fielder’s choice in the seventh, its best opportunity to score came in the fifth.
UF loaded the bases on three straights singles from Nelson Maldonado, Christian Hicks and Ryan Larson, leaving the following hitters with three outs to take advantage.
The Gators, however, came away empty-handed.
Mark Kolozsvary chopped a ball to the third baseman, who threw home for the first out. Then Liput popped out before Andrew Baker tapped out to the first baseman.
“We’ve been talking about that, with runners in scoring position, we can’t get to two strikes,” O’Sullivan said. “Unfortunately that was an inning where we had an opportunity to score and the three at bats were not very good.”
Florida struggled against Tigers starting pitcher Casey Mize, who out dueled Singer. The right-hander allowed one run (unearned) on five hits and struck out eight through seven innings.
“When you face a pitcher like Mize, and he’s throwing the ball as well as he was, when you have your opportunities you have to have quality at bats,” O’Sullivan said. “Hopefully we’ll learn from that.”
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Jonathan India (right) stands on third base during Florida's 5-4 win over the William and Mary Tribe on Friday, Feb. 17, 2017, at McKethan Stadium.
