It was far from an ideal start for Florida against Stetson on Wednesday night. With freshman Timmy Manning on the mound, the Gators allowed the Hatters to jump out to an early 5-0 lead. But UF stayed in it, slowly but surely clawing its way back until finally erupting in the fifth and sixth innings to pull away.
Florida (11-3) bested Stetson 10-7 led by excellent performances at the plate from Jacob Young (3 of 4) and Nate Hickey (4 of 5). The Hatters (10-4) entered this game intent on revenge, as the program visibly felt slighted after the last contest between the two games was canceled following a rain delay. Despite leading 10-1 when play stopped, it didn’t count as a victory for Stetson.
Florida hasn't played Stetson since 2017… due in part to how Stetson treated the 2017 game that was cancelled due to rain.
Here was the Stetson write up from the game, and there were some tweets that have since been deleted. https://t.co/rY0vTa5Mvl pic.twitter.com/CDaq2qiSNH
— Nick de la Torre (@delatorre) March 10, 2021
Stetson started its ace, Anthony DeFabbia, and Florida struggled to connect on him in the early innings. He allowed just one hit in the first two innings.
Manning, meanwhile, made his first career start for the Gators, but it was one to forget for the young pitcher. He gave up an RBI single in the first, though he managed to limit the scoring to that. But he got shelled in the second, allowing four hits, including a triple and double that each scored two runs.
He gave up five earned runs in just 1 and 2/3, and he was pulled for Chase Centala, who got out of the inning without allowing any more runs. But the damage had been done, and Stetson had an early five-run lead.
Luckily for Florida, DeFabbia started to crack in the third inning. The Gators broke the shutout off a fielding error, and a single from Kendrick Calilao scored their second run. Things got even worse for DeFabbia in the fourth, as Young homered to cut the Hatters’ lead to just two runs. A four-pitch walk against Jud Fabian on the next at-bat ended DeFabbia’s evening.
Reliever Nick Chiseri got Stetson out of the inning, but he ran into trouble quickly in the fifth. A homer from Kris Armstrong cut the lead to just one run, and after a single from Colby Halter put two on, the Hatters made another change in favor of Garner Spoljaric. He struck out Jordan Carrion on his first at-bat, but a double from Young tied the game. A two-RBI single from Hickey later in the inning gave Florida its first lead of the game at 7-5.
The Gators kept it rolling in the sixth, scoring a run on a sac-fly from Young. Fabian and Hickey followed with a pair of RBI base hits to stretch the lead to five runs. Stetson would mount a few challenges in the final innings, but nothing that led to a run. It scored in the seventh on a double allowed by David Luethje, and Franco Aleman gave up a homer in the ninth with two outs, but the Gators survived the slugfest.
Brandon Sproat, who entered the game for Florida in the top of the fifth and allowed two hits and no runs in 1 and 2/3, earned his second win of the season.
The Gators return to Florida Ballpark on Friday for the first game in their weekend series against Jacksonville, with first pitch set for 6:30 p.m. EST.
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