One night after securing a ten-run win in Jacksonville, the Florida Gators dropped a 10-8 decision to the JU Dolphins Wednesday night.
Despite pounding out eight runs, the Florida pitching staff struggled with command all night. As a unit, the Florida pitchers walked eleven batters and hit three more.
Florida opened the scoring after a clean first frame from freshman RHP Yoel Tejada on a blast from DH Jac Caglianone. For the sophomore, it was his nation-leading eighth homer of the year.
Freshman Luke Heyman continued the scoring in the second with an RBI double that tracked all the way to the wall in left, plating Tyler Shelnut, who had singled in the previous at-bat.
Tejada pitched well through two innings, but that all fell apart in the third as he walked four batters, giving Jacksonville their first run without having to swing the bat. LHP Blake Purnell took over and got the Gators out of the jam with just the one run ceeded.
JU followed by taking the lead in the fourth. Purnell started the inning with a walk and a hit batter and watched those two come around to score on a single by Cam Ridley to make it a 3-2 ballgame.
Back to back fielding errors by JU in the bottom of the fourth inning allowed the Gators to take a 5-3 lead. Michael Robertson reached on an error at first and Cade Kurland reached on an E-5 that cleared the bases.
What followed was simply (March) madness.
JU scored six runs in the sixth inning off three pitchers. The Dolphins recorded five hits and walked four times against three different Florida pitchers.
Jacksonville added another run in the seventh after a one out walk came around to score following a two out single.
Josh Rivera cut the deficit to 10-6 with a solo shot to the batter’s eye in center.
While the Gators added a pair of runs on a bases loaded single by Kurland, the damage was limited as both Wyatt Langford and Caglianone were forced to fly out to end the threat.
For the game, Rivera, Ty Evans, and Tyler Shelnut each recorded two hits. Clete Hertzog, making his first appearance as a Gator, recorded a 1-2-3 inning and struck out the side in the eighth.
Florida falls to 8-2 overall with No. 22 Miami coming to town for a weekend series beginning Friday evening.