Baseball team got spanked by USF, 15-10....but played a ton of freshman, who sh*t the bed. 17 walks!! Oooooof!
http://www.gatorsports.com/article/.../1180?Title=Walk-filled-win-for-South-Florida
Walk-filled win for South Florida
In a mid-week, in-state showdown game between ranked teams, No. 5 Florida turned to a collection of freshman pitchers to try to get the job done against No. 24 South Florida.
But on this night, control was optional.
Seven Florida pitchers combined to issue a season-high 17 walks, the most in 10 seasons under coach Kevin O’Sullivan, as the Gators lost 15-10 to USF before 3,114 at McKethan Stadium on Tuesday.
“It’s been a year of firsts, for a lot of things,” O’Sullivan said. “Never seen a defensive game in the infield as good as Dalton (Guthrie) played against Georgia, I think we played as good as a baseball team as we did all season last weekend against Ole Miss, played in 24, 25 one-run games all year and then tonight we walk 17 guys, I think the most we’ve ever had was 10.”
Florida (35-14) had its nine-game win streak snapped, but didn’t go down without a fight. The Gators rallied for five runs in the bottom of the ninth, cutting USF’s lead to 15-10 on a two-RBI single by Ryan Larson. But with runners on first and second, infielder Deacon Liput grounded out to first to end the game.
Florida let up a season-high 15 runs, surpassing the prior season high of 14 runs in its SEC opener at Auburn (14-3 on March 17). USF (38-10) scored its 14th and 15th runs in the top of the ninth on an RBI fielder’s choice and a wild pitch uncorked by freshman righty Austin Bodrato.
Freshman righty Garrett Milchin started for the Gators but was limited to a pitch count of 30-40 because O’Sullivan wanted to use him in this weekend’s SEC series at Alabama. Milchin surrendered a two-run homer to USF cleanup hitter Joe Genord in the top of the first inning, giving the Bulls a quick 2-0 lead, and allowed 2 ER on two hits and two walks in 2 IP.
Florida cut USF’s lead to 2-1 in the bottom of the second on a solo home run from Jonathan India. But free passes proved costly during USF’s six-run third inning, which broke the game open. Freshman righty Nate Brown walked three batters and allowed an RBI single to Genord before being pulled with the bases loaded down 3-1. Senior righty Frank Rubio replaced Brown but couldn’t get out of the jam. USF went ahead 4-1 on a groundout, then 6-1 on a two-RBI double from Coco Montes. A two-RBI single by Chris Chatfield extended USF’s lead to 8-1.
From there, USF padded its lead as Florida pitchers continued to fail to find the strike zone. Genord hit his second homer in the sixth and finished 3 for 5 with four RBIs. Freshman righty Tyler Dyson allowed two runs on three walks in 1.1 innings pitched, while freshman righty Kirby McMullen walked three in 1.2 innings.
“The thing that’s going on with some of our freshmen is they are coming in, having one good inning, and then they are running back out there for the second inning and it’s not as clean,” O’Sullivan said. “I try to help them get the point across that they don’t have to do it on their own, we play such good defense, that there’s really no need to be walking so many guys.
“For these young pitchers, if you keep harping on those walks, it’s like free-throw shooting in basketball, it ends up being contagious. I think tonight it was one of those nights. It just got to the point it got out of hand.”
Offensively, there were some bright spots for UF. India had his second homer in as many games and JJ Schwarz belted his seventh homer of the season. Freshman Blake Reese, who started at second base for Liput, went 2 for 3 with three RBIs.
“In general we’ve got to throw more strikes,” Reese said. “The pitchers fell behind too much. But really we’ve got to move on. We’ve got a series this weekend (at Alabama) and we’re sitting good in the SEC right now.”
The loss dropped Florida to 8-5 in mid-week games this season, with the struggles finding a consistent fourth starter the main culprit in the Gators dropping some games. Asked if that could be a concern heading into the postseason, O’Sullivan said he intends to lean on the top three starters in his rotation and hope for the best.
“I’m planning on winning the first three and going home,” O’Sullivan said. “That’s the plan. We’ll get to that if we ever get to that, that’s something we’ve got to think about. If you get into the loser’s bracket in a regional it’s very tough no matter how much pitching depth you have. Our three starters have been as good as anyone in the country and that’s been our recipe for success.”