Florida baseball falls to Jacksonville in midweek action

Florida lost to Jacksonville, 4-3, on Tuesday night. The Gators hit a season-high six batters in the loss, including two in a disastrous eighth inning.

Schuyler Sandford struggled out of the gate, walking two of the first three batters and bothcing a pickoff attempt. He recovered to get through the inning without giving up a run, but he didn’t make it out of the second. Sandford neared 49 pitches after just five outs, so Kevin O’Sullivan brought in Eli Blair earlier than expected. Blair hit the first batter he faced, but forced a groundout to keep Jacksonville off the board.

Florida didn’t do much offensively until the third. Brendan Lawson and Cole Stanford singled in the first and second, respectively, but neither came around to score. Lawson drove in the first run of the game with a sacrifice fly, capitalizing on a leadoff triple from Kolt Myers. Ethan Surowiec drove in Kyle Jones, who walked earlier in the inning.

Blair hit another batter in the third. A wild pitch and passed ball got him over to third base, but he got out of it again. After a third hit batter in the fourth inning, Caden McDonald took over for Blair. McDonald was the only arm of the night for Florida that didn’t hit a batter. He allowed one run on four hits, but he also struck out five over 2 2/3 innings.

Cole Stanford homered in the fourth to make it 3-0, Florida. Jacksonville got on the board in the sixth, when three of McDonald’s allowed hits came. They were all singles, but it was enough to drive in former Gator Sammy Mummau.

Billy Barlow pitched a 1-2-3 seventh. He was on his way to a second clean inning, but he couldn’t get the third out after striking out the first two batters. He hit a batter and walked Mummau, bringing in Cooper Walls. The former Sunday starter hit the first batter he saw to load the bases.

A bizarre sequence occurred next and ultimately decided the game. Roger Vergara took a 1-2 pitch that was a ball and got passed Stanford, but the umpire called the ball dead, stopping Jacksonville from scoring. The crew convened and decided the call on the field was a hit by pitch, but it missed Vergara by a good six inches. Florida challenged the call, and it was reversed, but the umpires still robbed Jacksonville of a run.

Vergara made it right with a two-run single, tying the game and advancing the go-ahead run to third. A passed ball from Walls gave Jacksonville a 4-3 lead.

Blake Cyr singled in the sixth but couldn’t score. That was Florida’s last hit of the night. Karson Bowen also got on base with a walk in the bottom of the ninth, but Jacksonville stopped him from scoring.

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