TALLAHASSEE - Raise your hand if you saw this one coming.
After a gut-check 7-4 loss to Tulane on Friday afternoon featuring a brutal six-run seventh inning, the Gators found themselves in the loser's bracket on the first day of play in the Tallahassee Regional.
Now they have company, and it's not who you'd think.
Today's elimination game at 1 p.m. at Dick Howser Stadium will feature UF and Florida State.
That's right. The Seminoles, the fourth-seeded team in the nation, fell to Bucknell 7-0 Friday night, and the Gators now have the opportunity to end their rivals' season in front of their home crowd.
Patrick Keating (8-1, 3.47 ERA) will get the start for UF, while FSU will send lefthander Matt Fairel (10-2, 3.32 ERA) to the hill in a do-or-die game. Both pitchers are considered the aces of their respective staffs.
The key to Friday's game for the Orange and Blue was supposed to be getting past Conference USA Pitcher of the Year Shooter Hunt (9-3, 2.45 ERA). For five innings, Hunt was as brilliant as advertised. Then in the sixth inning, the wheels fell off for the projected first-round pick.
The Gators chased Hunt from the game in the sixth after senior first baseman Brandon McArthur shot an RBI double into the right-center field gap, senior second baseman Jon Townsend launched a two-run home run off the scoreboard in centerfield and another run was tacked on due to an error.
At that point, it seemed UF had all of the momentum with a three-run lead and Hunt now out of the game. But the momentum swung in the blink of an eye.
Starter Stephen Locke had gone six strong innings while only giving up one run, though Tulane had stranded at least one runner on base in every inning. During the seventh inning, after Locke gave up consecutive singles to start the frame, UF coach Kevin O'Sullivan had a dilemma.
"You've got a decision to make," O'Sullivan said. "Do you bring in (Billy) Bullock or do you wait until (Locke) gets into further trouble? We went to Billy a little early. We could have waited a batter or two."
Instead, they handed the ball over to Bullock, who suffered the worst outing of his Florida career. He recorded just one out and surrendered four runs while also allowing Locke's last two runners to score.
"It was a drastic momentum swing, for sure," McArthur said. "But that's the way the game goes sometimes."
Freshman reliever Nick Pepitone closed it out for the Green Wave, stifling the UF offense over the last 2 2/3 innings to record the win, while Bullock was tagged with the loss.
"I thought they battled well," O'Sullivan said of his players. "I can't fault our team. The bottom line is we couldn't stop them there in the seventh."
Though the Gators did not yet know the identity of their opponents at the conclusion of Friday's game, they were clearly eager to put the loss behind them.
"Our backs are against the wall once again," Townsend said, "and historically we play our best when that's the case. We know it's do or die from here on out."
NOTES: Tulane coach Rick Jones was tickled by the support his team received from the FSU faithful during Friday's game.
"In my 15 years at Tulane, we've been sent to Baton Rouge seven times and we know what it's like to be on the other end of that," Jones said. "We know what it's like to have 7,000 people in purple and gold cheering for Harvard, okay? This was a really fun role reversal that I didn't really mind."
For a game that was a mere two-plus hours away from Gainesville, it was a decidedly anti-Gator, pro-Green Wave crowd of 3,609 on Friday. The Tulane fans may have outnumbered those in orange and blue by themselves, but the Wave was also backed by a large contingent of vociferous Seminoles. … Go-to reliever Josh Edmondson is unavailable for today's game after twisting his ankle during practice. … Senior bullpen catcher Brett Bentley decided to leave his mark at Mike Martin Field during batting practice on Thursday, smashing a ball through the letter "M" in the "Dick Howser Stadium" sign above the scoreboard.
