It would’ve taken a miraculous throw. Instead, Razorbacks center fielder Peyton Holt improvised.
As the ball soared off the bat of Colby Shelton and into the glove of Holt, Gators designated hitter Brody Donay straddled third base.
Trailing 6-5 with one out in the eighth inning, Donay angled his body toward the plate. He was ready to take off as soon as the ball landed into Holt’s glove.
Instead, Holt faked the catch.
It landed in his glove less than a second later, but Donay had already taken off. The designated hitter re-attempted to tag-up from third but was caught at the plate.
The 11-second sequence was a microcosm of a weekend full of misfortunes for the Gators.
The Arkansas Razorbacks (37-7, 16-5 SEC) won the series against the Florida Gators (22-21, 9-12 SEC). Florida lost 2-1 Friday and played a doubleheader Saturday due to expected inclement weather Sunday at Baum-Walker Stadium. The Gators were narrowly edged, 6-5, Saturday afternoon and won 9-5 Saturday night.
The pitching staffs from both teams were phenomenal all throughout the weekend. Subsequently, each game came down to a single play.
On Friday, Gators southpaw Pierce Coppola made his best start since debuting nearly a month ago. He struck out six batters and gave up just one run on a solo-shot by Arkansas designated hitter Ryder Helfrick.
After two nearly perfect relief outings from Gators right-handers Fisher Jameson and Luke McNeillie, the Razorbacks scored the winning run in the eighth inning on a sacrifice fly by third baseman Jared Sprague-Lott.
The next game, both teams stayed neck and neck until the Gators looked on the verge of blowing open the game with the bases loaded and one out in the eighth inning.
Trailing 6-5, Donay was doubled up attempting to advance home on a flyout by Shelton.
Gators head coach Kevin O’Sullivan looked speechless. He looked at the field as the Razorbacks celebrated with his jaw dropped and seemingly in utter confusion.
The game eventually ended after a scoreless ninth inning. Less than an hour later, the second game of the doubleheader began.
Similar to the first two games, both offenses didn’t get much going in the early innings.
However, with one swing of the bat, the Gators broke open the game.
Florida southpaw Jac Caglianone pitched three innings of one-run baseball and came up to the plate in the fourth inning. With the bases loaded, Caglianone crushed a pitch over the center field wall for a grand slam.
The Gators took a 7-1 lead and never looked back.
Despite some late rallies and instances where the Razorbacks looked on the verge of scoring several runs, Florida’s relievers closed it out to take the final game of the series.
Gators righties Jake Clemente and Jameson, as well as left-handed freshman Frank Menendez combined for five innings and surrendered just one run.
The weekend was a success for Florida’s pitching but a forgetful one for its offense. In total, the Gators’ bats struck out 31 times over the weekend. Caglianone had a monstrous day at the plate Saturday and went 5-for-6 with four walks, four RBI and a home run in both games.
Florida resumes its schedule against the Florida Atlantic Owls at 4 p.m. Tuesday at Condron Family Ballpark. The game was originally scheduled for March 5 and was pushed back due to expected inclement weather.
Contact Luke Adragna at ladragna@alligator.org. Follow him on X @lukeadrag.
Luke Adragna is a third-year journalism student and the Florida Gators football reporter at The Alligator. He is a cat ethusiast and completes the NYT Daily Mini in less than a minute each day.
