Florida’s bats have returned to form, but Jonathon Crawford did not take that for granted against Auburn.
The sophomore hurler pitched arguably his best game this season in a 6-1 Gators (41-16) victory against the Tigers (30-27) on Tuesday in the first round of the Southeastern Conference Tournament.
“Jonathon did an outstanding job and gave us a great start,” coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “Our offense is starting to come around a little bit, but it all starts on the mound and Jonathon threw the ball really well.”
Crawford (5-2) pitched 5.2 innings and gave up just one unearned run on two hits in the first SEC Tournament start of his career. He had a career-high nine strikeouts, which accounted for more than half of the 17 batters he retired.
“[Crawford has] a special arm you don’t get to see too much … arms likes that are hard to find,” assistant coach Brad Weitzel said. “He’s putting it together. He walks a little bit too many, but he’s getting better and better each outing. He’s getting more confidence.”
Issues with control plagued Crawford as he walked four batters, including free passes to Jay Gonzalez and Justin Bryant to lead off the first and fourth frames, respectively. Crawford walked three batters with a full count and stranded all four on the bases.
“It was more just lack of focus,” Crawford said. “(I) just lost focus with some batters.”
Auburn’s Bobby Andrews scored the lone run Crawford surrendered. Andrews led off the third with a single and a throwing error by Nolan Fontana allowed the next batter, Zach Alvord, to reach base. A Gonzalez sacrifice bunt moved both runners over, and Andrews scored on a Creede Simpson sacrifice fly.
Other than the third, Crawford faced little trouble and lasted until he hit Dan Glevenyak with a pitch in the sixth. O’Sullivan pulled Crawford and replaced him with Steven “Paco” Rodriguez.
Rodriguez, Greg Larson and Austin Maddox used just 33 pitches to get through the final 3.1 innings. The trio gave up just one hit and fanned two batters.
“Our relief pitching was good,” O’Sullivan said. “It was good to get Maddox and [Rodriguez] back out there. They haven’t been used a whole lot in the last week and a half or so. It was good to get those guys out there.”
Florida’s next draw in the SEC Tournament comes tonight in a 2011 College World Series rematch against Vanderbilt (31-25) tonight at 9. The Gators are motivated this postseason by their loss in the 2011 College World Series final.
“There are some people who are still mad about last year in Omaha,” Weitzel said, “and I’m one of them.”
A radio broadcast contributed to this report.
Contact Joe Morgan at joemorgan@alligator.org.
Jonathon Crawford throws against Arkansas on April 29. Crawford lowered his ERA to 3.34 after giving up one unearned run in 5.2 innings against Auburn on Tuesday.
