The inclement weather in the Gainesville area didn’t dissuade fans from packing Condron Ballpark for Florida baseball’s season opener Friday night.
It didn’t hold back the Gators’ offense, either.
The Florida Gators (1-0) pounded the Charleston Southern Buccaneers (0-1) 13-3 to christen the 2023 season. Senior catcher BT Riopelle led Florida’s offense with five runs batted in, three coming from a home run in the bottom of the first inning.
The ballgame ended prematurely after Riopelle singled home junior shortstop Josh Rivera in the bottom of the seventh.
The run pushed the gap to 10 runs, triggering the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s new mercy rule, which ends the contest after seven innings. The rule is required for Southeastern Conference play but can be used in non-conference play. It requires the consent of the non-conference opponent’s coach.
Florida head coach Kevin O’Sullivan opposes the rule in part because it goes against baseball’s nine inning tradition, he said.
“It takes away from opportunities to get other guys some at bats.” O’Sullivan said. “Maybe a couple guys to throw the eighth and the ninth.”
Junior pitcher Brandon Sproat got the call to open UF’s season and put on a show for the Florida faithful. The right-hander didn’t give up a hit through 5.2 innings and allowed three earned runs. He struck out seven batters and walked three.
Buccaneers senior right-hander Zac Robinson opposed Sproat but was pulled from the game after just two innings.
Charleston Southern engineered the game’s first run in the opening frame. Sproat struck out freshman first baseman Ashton Wilson looking to begin the game. Sophomore center fielder Ike George then walked, stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch. Junior second baseman Jaylin Rae drove him in with a line-drive sacrifice fly to center field.
Sproat settled in following his first-inning hiccup.
Florida’s Friday ace retired 12 of the next 14 hitters and walked two. He was replaced by sophomore lefty Phillip Abner after hitting two batters with a pitch in the top of the sixth inning.
It didn’t take long for Florida to respond in the first inning.
Junior left fielder Wyatt Langford laced a triple to right-center field with one out. Rivera reached first on the season’s first pitch clock violation; Robinson didn’t deliver a 3-0 pitch to Rivera within the allotted 20 seconds. As a result, home plate umpire Randy Olhausen awarded an extra ball to the count, allowing Rivera to advance to first base automatically.
Riopelle followed up the initial confusion by smashing the first ball he saw beyond the right-center field fence for a go-ahead three-run homer.
Florida tacked on another run in the bottom of the second. Redshirt freshman center fielder Michael Robertson lined a fastball right back up the middle to score junior designated hitter Tyler Shelnut from second base to give the Gators a 4-1 advantage.
Charleston Southern senior left-hander Kaleb Hill relieved Robinson in the third inning.
He worked a scoreless frame but found himself in trouble in the fourth. Hill loaded the bases for Langford, who walked to force sophomore second baseman Deric Fabian home from third.
Rivera followed it up with a base hit to right field two batters later, plating two more and extending Florida’s lead to 7-1.
Junior righty Devin McWatters came out of the Buccaneers’ bullpen in the fifth and surrendered a pair of doubles to left field off the bats of Florida junior Ty Evans and Shelnut — the latter hit scored UF’s eighth run.
Abner relieved Sproat with two runners on base in the sixth inning. He walked junior pinch hitter James Jett to load the bases.
Senior right fielder Tyrell Brewer lifted a dunk shot into right field, which scored a pair and cut the lead to 8-3. UF sophomore pitcher Fisher Jameson relieved Abner and induced the inning-ending flyout to center field on one pitch.
Florida answered with a four spot in the bottom of the sixth inning to put the game out of reach.
The Gators knocked five straight hits off McWatters. Caglianone drove in Langford on a bullet to right field. Riopelle came through once more and pulled a ball into the right-field corner to score Caglianone. Evans followed with a two-run single to left field to put Florida up 12-3.
Langford — the tenth man to bat in the frame — stepped to plate with the bases loaded and flied out to center field to end the inning.
Jameson set down the Buccaneers in order in the top of the seventh, which meant the offense only needed one more run to tie a victory bow on opening night.
O’Sullivan praised Jameson’s performance and said he hopes his bullpen takes a step forward this season.
“That's going to hopefully be a theme for a bunch of the pitchers that you see that are now sophomores that went through the growing pains last year and kind of figured out the last third of the year,” O’Sullivan said.
Florida and Charleston Southern are back at it Saturday night for the second game of the weekend series. First pitch at Condron Ballpark is scheduled for 4 p.m. The game will be streamed on SEC Network+.
Contact Ethan Eibe at eeibe@alligator.org. Follow him on Twitter @EthanEibe.
Ethan Eibe is a second-year UF sports media major and covers Gators baseball for The Alligator. Outside of his writing, Ethan is a play-by-play broadcaster for UF student radio and has spent two summers announcing professional baseball with the Alpine Cowboys. He is a long-suffering Miami Marlins fan.
