Jack Leftwich’s glove dangled from the fingers of his right hand as he left the mound, Florida fans raining whistles and applause down upon him.
The fourth-year pitcher put on a show Saturday with his first shutout of the year as Florida’s mound held Jacksonville to two total hits in a 9-0 victory.
After a pair of home runs in a futile ninth-inning comeback Friday night, Florida’s bats lost no momentum overnight. Josh Rivera slapped a line drive to left field that rocketed over the wall at 107 miles per hour to make it a 1-0 ball game in the second inning. One frame later, designated hitter Nathan Hickey gave the Gators a 3-0 lead when he took Jacksonville starter Mike Cassala deep to Dizney Grove for his seventh home run of the season.
Leftwich authored one of his best nights of the year on the mound. The righty blanked Jacksonville for the first six innings, striking out seven against three walks and two hits. He threw a few pitches in the seventh before leaving because of cramps as the home crowd gave him a standing ovation.
Leftwich allowed fewer runs each time he saw the mound, which culminated in stifling the Dolphins Saturday.
“My first couple, I didn’t feel that good,” Leftwich said. “But then the last two, I felt really good, back to normal. Just pitching, not really thinking about mechanics, just throwing the ball.”
The Gators cooled off at the plate after the two early home runs but exploded again in the eighth inning. Jud Fabian reeled in two runs with a single before Kirby McMullen launched the second baseball of the night into the outfield grove.
When the inning ended, Florida owned a 9-0 advantage.
Even working with a massive lead, the bullpen held its ground in one of its best days of 2021. Freshman Jordan Carrion, who batted more than he pitched entering Saturday, threw two scoreless innings in relief of Leftwich without a walk or a hit.
Head coach Kevin O’Sullivan praised the newcomer’s fastball and breaking balls and added that Carrion’s role on the mound could change moving forward.
“Looking at the way he was throwing tonight, we probably need to put him in a little bit more leverage situations,” O’Sullivan said. “Possibly, I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but maybe he’s a guy we look at at the end of the game. He kind of checks all the boxes.”
Second-year Brandon Sproat closed the game with three outs to cement one of Florida’s best performances with conference play slated to begin in less than a week.
Sunday’s series tiebreaker will begin at 1 p.m.
Contact Ryan Haley at rhaley@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @ryan_dhaley
Ryan Haley, a UF journalism senior with a sports & media specialization from Jacksonville, Florida, is Summer 2022's Engagement Managing Editor. He grew up playing a bunch of different sports before settling on golf, following Rory McIlroy and all Philadelphia sports teams. He also loves all things fiction, reading, watching shows and movies and talking about whatever current story or character is in his head.
