Sophomore Corey Littrell carried a shutout
into the ninth inning and sophomore closer Trevor Gott stranded the tying run
on second base to complete the contest as No. 6 Kentucky (37-11/15-9 SEC) edged
No. 5 Florida (35-13/14-10 SEC), 2-1, on Saturday afternoon at Cliff Hagan
Stadium. The Gators had claimed the first two outings of the series, 5-3 on
Thursday and 5-1 on Friday.
A two-out RBI single by sophomore Matt Reida
off junior Brian Johnson (Cocoa Beach, Fla.) (5-4) broke a scoreless tie
in the fifth and the Wildcats capitalized on a pair of Gator errors in the
eighth to carry a 2-0 lead into the ninth. After Littrell (7-0) surrendered a
leadoff homer to senior Daniel Pigott (Ormond Beach, Fla.) (2-for-4) that
brought the Gators within a run, Gott was summoned from the bullpen. The righty
struck out freshman Casey Turgeon (Palm Harbor, Fla.) and freshman Justin
Shafer (Lake Wales, Fla.) (3-for-4) singled into right field. Senior pinch
hitter Jeff Moyer (Winter Springs, Fla.) fouled out to the catcher for
the second out and Gott was later charged with a balk that moved Shafer into
scoring position. However, the reliever had an infield fly by junior Nolan
Fontana (Winter Garden, Fla.) close the game to record his ninth save.
Although the Gators enjoyed a 10-7 advantage in hits, they left nine runners on
base.
After Littrell retired the first two batters
of the game, senior Preston Tucker (Tampa, Fla.) (2-for-4) doubled to
center field for his 12th two-bagger of the year. In the first inning of the
series, Tucker homered on Thursday and had an RBI single on Friday. Littrell
had junior Mike Zunino (Cape Coral, Fla.) ground out.
Johnson (2-for-4) helped his own cause with a
leadoff single through the right side in the second inning and Shafer roped a
two-out double off the wall in center field. However, Littrell had junior Vickash
Ramjit (Miami, Fla.) ground out to strand the runners.
Freshman A.J. Reed poked a one-out single off
the wall overlooking right field in the bottom of the frame and Johnson had senior
Michael Williams line into an inning-ending double play started by Turgeon.
In the fourth, Pigott roped a single with one
down into right center and swiped second base to move into scoring position.
Turgeon advanced Pigott to third with a grounder but Littrell had Shafer fly
out to right field to keep the contest scoreless.
Freshman Austin Cousino (2-for-4) began the
home part of the inning with a base-hit up the middle and went to second on a
wild pitch. Junior Zac Zellers pushed Cousino to third with a sacrifice bunt
and Johnson had junior Luke Maile fly out to shallow right field and senior
Thomas McCarthy go down swinging on strikes.
Ramjit began the fifth with a hard single
through the left side of the infield and went to second on a grounder by Fontana.
Littrell had freshman Josh Tobias (Greensboro, N.C.) ground out to third
base and Tucker fly out to straightaway center field.
Williams (2-for-3) doubled down the
right-field line with one out in the bottom of the inning and sophomore J.T.
Riddle followed with a walk for two runners aboard. Junior Brian Adams advanced
Williams to third with a fly ball to right field and Reida punched a base-knock
into center field to score Williams. Johnson struck out Cousino to hold the
deficit at a run.
Johnson tagged a one-out double to right
center in the sixth and Littrell had Pigott fly out and Turgeon ground out to
preserve the Wildcats’ advantage.
Sophomore Jonathon Crawford (Okeechobee, Fla.) took over for Johnson (5.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 2 K, 1 BB) prior to UK’s sixth at bat and struck out the first two batters before having McCarthy fly out.
Shafer started the seventh with a bloop
single into left field and Ramjit collected his first sacrifice hit of the season
to push his teammate into scoring position. Littrell countered with a strikeout
of Fontana and had Tobias ground out.
In the home part of the frame, Williams
legged out a single with one down and Adams had a two-out base-hit into center
field. Crawford fielded a grounder by Reida and threw out the runner to end the
seventh.
Cousino led off the bottom of the eighth with
a single into center field and went to second on a fielding error by Pigott.
Zellers sacrificed Cousino to third base and a fielding miscue by Tobias
enabled Kentucky to take a 2-0 lead. Crawford had McCarthy ground into an
inning-ending 6-4-3 double play. In three innings of work, Crawford gave up
three hits and an unearned run and had a pair of strikeouts.
Pigott opened the ninth with his sixth homer
of the campaign to left field to narrow the gap to 2-1 and prompt a pitching
change. Over a career-high eight innings, Littrell scattered nine hits and
permitted just one run, with five strikeouts and zero walks. Gott struck out
Turgeon but Shafer followed with a single into right field. A two-out balk by
the reliever moved Shafer to second base but Gott had Fontana pop up to second
base to end the game.
