Jonathan India didn’t even reach for the ball. Instead, he watched as it zipped past him, carrying the game with it.
It happened in the bottom of the ninth inning with Florida tied at Auburn. UF senior Frank Rubio was facing runners on first and second with no outs. So when a dribbler came his way off the bat of Auburn leadoff man Jonah Todd, he tried to get the lead runner at third.
He missed. Badly.
The ball whizzed past India — who made no effort to try and catch it — before barreling into a brick wall and bouncing toward the outfield. Auburn’s Blake Logan trotted home to secure the 6-5 win and his school’s first sweep over UF since 1987 as his teammates poured out of the dugout to shower him in water, Gatorade and affection.
“We just didn’t do enough offensively in the middle innings and just shot ourselves in the foot defensively today,” coach Kevin O’Sullivan said in a release, “which is certainly uncharacteristic of us.”
Florida has relied on its pitching to win games all season, and Sunday was no exception. Starter Jackson Kowar went six innings and allowed two earned runs, and No. 5 UF’s bullpen threw three scoreless innings before Rubio’s error.
However, Florida (13-8, 0-3 SEC) has also relied heavily on its defense to win games, entering Sunday leading the SEC with a .984 fielding percentage. But on Sunday, as O’Sullivan referenced, UF's defense failed it.
Facing a bases-loaded, two-out situation in the third inning, UF shortstop Christian Hicks had a chance to get the Gators out of the jam when a high pop-up went his way.
He dropped it.
Two runs scored.
Then, up by one run in the bottom of the sixth inning, center fielder Andrew Baker was tracking a fly ball in center field when he slipped and fell. He popped back up immediately, regaining his view of the ball and, after shuffling back and forth a few times, getting under it to squeeze it.
But as he threw the ball in with a smile on his face, O’Sullivan wasn’t smiling. Not after Hicks had already dropped a similar ball.
Later on, Auburn (17-5, 3-0 SEC) was threatening to score after catcher Blake Logan opened the bottom of the seventh with a triple. The next hitter drilled a ground ball right at India, who bobbled it and couldn’t recover in time to record the out. His blunder gave the Tigers runners on first and third with no outs, and Auburn was able to capitalize with a sacrifice fly to tie the game.
“I think it boiled down to defense today,” O’Sullivan said.
Aside from being Auburn’s first sweep of Florida since 1987, it was also Florida’s first time getting swept in an SEC-opening series since 2009, when UF got rocked at Arkansas.
O’Sullivan did say he saw some progress, though. Florida’s offense, which has struggled to open the 2017 season, managed to score five runs in the loss. He’s hoping the offense can continue to produce when the team travels to Deland for a midweek matchup with Stetson on Tuesday night at 6:30.
“But it is a bit frustrating,” he added. “We wanted to get out of here with one win, which we weren’t able to play good enough defense to do.”
Contact Ethan Bauer at ebauer@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @ebaueri.
UF third baseman Jonathan India stands at his position during Florida's 5-4 win against William & Mary on Feb. 17, 2017, at McKethan Stadium.
