Attack the zone. Keep the ball down. Give the defense a chance. Through two games against Arkansas, Florida’s pitchers are doing just that. Logan Shore earned his first collegiate victory with 6.1 innings of work on Friday while Eric Hanhold held the Razorbacks scoreless over five to get the win Saturday night.
Hanhold, the newly anointed Game 2 starter, induced ground balls for eight of his 15 outs. That’s a ratio any coach would want, especially when the defense hasn’t committed an error all weekend. Hanhold has worked on his sinker all offseason, Gators coach Kevin O’Sullivan said.
Relievers Aaron Rhodes, Bobby Poyner and Ryan Harris have combined for 6.2 scoreless innings of one-hit ball. There’s no down time for the Gators’ defense when pitchers are living in the zone.
“Sully always preaches pitching to contact. It helps keep pitch count down,” Poyner said. “It helps pitch later into games and it’s great to be efficient and get contact outs.”
The same can be said for Arkansas sophomore right-hander Trey Killian who tossed a complete-game Saturday night and retired 10-straight Gators before Casey Turgeon singled in the eighth inning. They didn’t ground out as much as the Razorbacks, but the Gators only struck out twice after the second inning.
Freshman Peter Alonso has started eight games at first, three games at third and six at designated hitter. He played behind Shore at first base on Friday night when the freshman right-hander only walked two batters.
“It’s awesome having those guys, because they just go out and attack hitters. It’s a lot easier. Hanhold and Shore for example have great tempo when they pitch,” Alonso said. “They just get the ball, get their sign and get ready to pitch as soon as possible. That gets the hitters off balance and good tempo always keeps the defense ready to play.”
In Poyner, they trust: A month ago on Thursday, Poyner threw the first pitch of 2014 for Florida baseball. Now he’s O’Sullivan’s security blanket in the bullpen.
Poyner has become Mr. Reliable in the middle innings for the Gators having made appearances in seven consecutive games. Sometimes he’s on the hill for just one batter like he was on Friday night facing left-handed batter Andrew Benintendi in the seventh inning with runners on first and second and Florida clinging to a 2-1 lead.
Other times he’s stretched out to longer appearances such as Saturday’s 3.2 innings where he allowed one hit, struck out four and retired his first 10 batters. Thirty-one of 44 pitches were strikes.
“He’ll start some more games for us. I just like having those left-handers in the pen. I trust him,” O’Sullivan said. “We can do a lot of matchup stuff. It’s just comforting to know you have a guy like Bobby down there.”
Bader makes season debut: As expected, Harrison Bader will play on Sunday at 1 p.m. against Arkansas (8-7, 0-2 SEC) with a sweep on the line.
Bader missed the first 19 games due to his involvement in a Feb. 2 scooter accident. He was instant offense for the Gators in 2013 by leading them with a .312 batting average and wreaking havoc on the base paths.
“Yeah he’ll play tomorrow. Harrison is a really good player. We’ll talk about it as a staff,” O’Sullivan said.
Junior right-hander Chris Oliver is Arkansas’ projected starter. He’ll be tasked with snapping Florida’s seven-game winning streak, preventing the sweep and facing Bader in some capacity. Freshman left-hander A.J. Puk has the ball for Florida and is coming off a start against Connecticut in which he struck out a career-high seven batters in 4.1 innings.
The Gators have done just enough without their top hitter from a year ago. They’ve hit .273 as a team during this streak, which is nearly identical to their season average of .259.
“Once again, I think our offense is better than seven hits. It’s coming. I’m feeling really good about it,” O’Sullivan said. “We have a ways to go. We’ve faced some really quality pitching, but we’re hanging in there though. I think we’re getting good swings.”
Follow Adam Pincus on Twitter at @adamDpincus.
