GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The No. 3 Gators' season opener against Long Beach State on Friday night was a long one and not just because it lasted nearly four hours.
UF's young and mostly inexperienced pitching staff walked nine batters, hit two more and uncorked three wild pitches to go along with two passed balls.
"It just seemed like every out was a hard one," Florida coach
Kevin O'Sullivan said. "It was a 2-2, 3-2 count a lot. I don't even know how many leadoff walks we had. It seemed like we pitched out of the stretch an awful lot tonight."
Despite the Gators being ranked in the top 10 in every preseason poll and O'Sullivan's track record of pumping out elite pitchers, a learning curve is to be expected to start this season. You simply can't lose two first-round MLB draft picks (
Brady Singer and
Jackson Kowar) and the best closer in school history (
Michael Byrne) and expect a smooth transition.
Still, it was a bit shocking that it took Florida's five pitchers 185 pitches to record 27 outs, only 55 percent of which were strikes. When they threw strikes, they fared well, striking out 11 and conceding just four hits and one earned run. The Dirtbags hit just 1-for-22 with runners on base and 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position.
"That's a huge thing with our staff, just throwing a lot of strikes," sophomore shortstop
Brady McConnell said. "The leadoff walks really come back to bite you. So, I think once we get that under control, we'll be good to go."
They made big pitches when they needed to and took advantage of two four-run innings on offense to defeat the Dirtbags 8-2.
Junior right-handed starter
Tyler Dyson, in his first action since suffering an injury midway through the 2018 season, threw 72 pitches in just 3 1/3 innings. He walked four, hurled two wild pitches and gave up two runs (one earned). He struck out four and gave up just two hits. He fell behind seemingly every batter, throwing exactly half of his pitches for strikes.
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Dyson seemed to consistently miss high on his arm side with his fastball and in the dirt with his breaking ball, perhaps signs of rust or nerves from his missed time a year ago.
"He's been throwing the ball well all preseason, so maybe it's just first-night stuff, I don't know," O'Sullivan said. "It did look like his slot was fluctuating back-and-forth, which his release point was a little bit off. He looked like he was trying to fight himself a little bit, trying to get back in a groove."
Dyson walked leadoff man Brooks Stotler to begin the game. Stotler then stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch. After a strikeout, Calvin Estrada popped one to shallow right field. Second baseman
Blake Reese made the catch and fired home to nail Stotler at the plate and escape the inning.
After a one-out double in the second, Dyson struck out the next two batters, both coming with full counts. In the third, a walk, an infield single and a passed ball put runners on second and third with two outs. He again escaped, this time with a weak grounder back to the mound that he flipped to first baseman
Kendrick Calilao.
He walked two more Dirtbags and threw another wild pitch in the fourth inning and was replaced by sophomore lefty
Jordan Butler, one of the most reliable pitchers on the team last season.
Butler (2 IP, 1 hit, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 SOs) threw a rather inefficient 42 pitches to pick up the win. A wild pitch and passed ball on consecutive pitches by Butler allowed Long Beach State to score its only runs in the fourth inning. He hit a batter in the fifth and walked a guy in the sixth before he was replaced by
Ben Specht, the first of three consecutive newcomers.
Specht needed 34 pitches to record five outs. He walked two and struck out one.
"A lot of these guys were anxious," senior co-captain
Nelson Maldonado said. "A lot of these guys were nervous. It's some of the guys' first game, so we're not really going to take [this game] into account."
One bright spot was sophomore righty
Justin Alintoff. He took the mound in the eighth inning and walked the leadoff man but then struck out the next three. He was the most efficient pitcher for either team, firing just 16 pitches.
Unlike most of the other new pitchers, Alintoff, a junior college transfer, doesn't throw in the mid-90s or receive a ton of attention from scouts. His fastball only registered in the upper-80s, but nobody could put it in play. He's similar to Byrne in this regard.
"His nickname's 'The Doctor,'" O'Sullivan said. "He's very, very competitive. I tell you what, he doesn't change. For whatever reason, he gets swings and misses on his stuff. He's been doing it to our hitters too. He's one of those guys, every time you put him out there, you pretty much know what you're going to get, and you can live with that win, lose or draw."
Freshman
Kris Armstrong pitched the ninth inning and plunked a batter and walked another before wrapping up the night with a strikeout.
"I wish there was one thing you could tell them to kind of settle them in, but there really isn't," O'Sullivan said. "I mean, there's no long speeches, there's no 'This is what you should expect.' Until you're out there and the lights go on and the umpire says, 'Play ball,' you can't simulate that in practice.
"I would expect us to get better as the weekend goes on and as time goes on, but, with so many new faces, it's not surprising that we made some mistakes tonight."
It was an up-and-down debut for Florida's revamped pitching staff. There was a little good, some bad and way too much ugly for O'Sullivan's liking.
"On most nights, when you play like this, you're probably going to be on the losing end," he said.
Fortunately, they've got time on their side. The Road to Omaha is a long, winding road.
"Every [team] is going to tell you the same thing regardless if they won or loss tonight," O'Sullivan said. "There's a long way to go in this thing. There's a lot of things to work on. So, you just hope that you make mistakes and learn from them and you don't continue to make the same ones over and over."
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