Tag: Kendrick Calila

Florida baseball bounces back in SEC Tournament against Arkasnas

Florida lives to see another game in the SEC Tournament. The Gators looked better in just about every way imaginable on Friday against Arkansas.

In a surprising turn of events, Florida baseball went from being one-hit and mercy-ruled on Thursday in the SEC Tournament by No. 2 seed Texas A&M to looking pretty dominant against No. 3 seed Arkansas Friday. With both teams facing elimination, the Gators knocked out the Razorbacks by a final score of 7-5.

[autotag]Nick Pogue[/autotag] was strong for five innings but ran into some trouble in the sixth. He gave up back-to-back home runs to Cayden Wallace and Michael Turner to lead off the inning and was quickly replaced by [autotag]Blake Purnell[/autotag]. Other than those two pitches though, Pogue looked good in the biggest game he’s pitched in since returning from Tommy John surgery.

Pogue struck out a career-high eight batters and limited the Hogs to just four hits on the day. His efforts gave the offense time to jump out to an early lead on a [autotag]Jac Caglianone[/autotag] two-run single in the second. Caglianone added another with a solo shot that hit that scoreboard in the fifth, and [autotag]Colby Halter[/autotag] followed up with a solo home run of his own a few at-bats later.

That ended the day for Arkansas’ Connor Noland, who was far more successful his last time out against Florida. That’s baseball, though. Evan Taylor got out of the inning and was replaced by Brady Tygart in the seventh. [autotag]Jud Fabian[/autotag] hit his second home run since May 4 to make it 6-2 and Tygart hit Caglianone and [autotag]Kendrick Calila[/autotag]o to put two men on.

Tygart left with an apparent injury, and the broadcasters later provided an update that he was simply not feeling well enough to pitch. That brought in Zebulon Vermillion, who Halter promptly singled up the middle to score the seventh Gators run of the day.

Slater took over for Purnell in the seventh after a leadoff single and got the Razorbacks to go down in order. He’d also get through the eighth with a clean bill aside from a Sterlin Thompson error on a ball hit right to him at second base.

Some drama came in the ninth, but the five-run cushion was enough for Florida to hold on to in the end. Slater walked the leadoff man and let him move around the bases only to score on a passed ball. 7-3, no big deal. With two outs, Slater walked another batter on a full count and then gave up a home run to Braydon Webb after eight pitches. 7-5, uh oh.

Mercifully, Cayden Wallace hit a grounder to second to end things and Slater held on for the win after throwing 68 pitches. It was shaky at the end, but Florida looked like the team it’s supposed to be in this one.

With the win, the Gators are set to face the loser of the Alabama-Texas A&M game that takes place at 5:30 p.m. EDT. Once the matchup is decided, the two teams will duke it out on Saturday with a scheduled start time of 4:00 p.m., meaning Florida will be facing a team on less than 24 hours rest.

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