Florida's Liam Peterson stranded seven Arkansas runners as the Gators took the series opener 9-4 Friday night.
That's exactly what happened Friday night at Baum-Walker Stadium, where the 25th-ranked Florida Gators handed sixth-ranked Arkansas a 9-4 loss in the opener of their three-game SEC series in a game decided as much by walks and stranded runners as by anything else.
Florida starter Liam Peterson issued six of his own but still found a way to shut the Hogs down when it counted most, stranding seven base runners across four innings of work.The Arkansas right-hander was lifted after just 1 1/3 innings — the shortest outing of his career — after issuing three consecutive walks to load the bases and hand Florida a runway it never gave back. Gaeckle threw 46 pitches and recorded only four outs. He walked four batters, hit one and surrendered one hit, with just 22 of his pitches finding the strike zone. When Gators nine-hole hitter Colton Schwarz drew the walk that forced him out of the game, left-hander Cole Gibler inherited the damage. It got worse before it got better. Gibler allowed a wild pitch that scored Cash Strayer and then gave up a sacrifice fly by Kyle Jones that plated Cole Stanford, pushing Florida's lead to 3-0 before the second inning was through. The Gators weren't finished in that frame. A single, a walk and a hit batsman loaded the bases again after Ethan Surowiec launched a 386-foot home run to right field on a 3-2 fastball — but Schwarz grounded out to strand all three runners. Florida had its chances to blow the game open early and settled for five second-inning runs, which proved more than enough.While Arkansas pitching was spinning its wheels, Florida's Peterson was turning escape acts into an art form. He allowed just one hit in four innings of work but walked six batters and still struck out seven — a head-scratching line that worked entirely in his favor because the Razorbacks couldn't cash in. In the first inning Camden Kozeal and Ryder Helfrick drew back-to-back one-out walks, but Zack Stewart struck out and Nolan Souza lined out to end the threat. Maika Niu led off the second with a double and went nowhere. In the third Helfrick and Stewart drew two-out walks before Souza struck out again.Peterson threw 91 pitches — 28, 9, 30 and 24 in each of his innings — with 61 strikes before being lifted ahead of the fifth in favor of left-hander Ernesto Lugo-Canchola.Kozeal drew a walk to open the fifth and Helfrick followed with a 390-foot home run to right-center field to trim the deficit to 6-2 and get the crowd back into it. But Lugo-Canchola — a former NCAA Division II national pitcher of the year — shut the door immediately. Any hope of a Razorbacks comeback took a serious hit in the seventh. Brendan Lawson led off with a walk against Gibler and after a pitching change to Steele Eaves, Karson Bowen unloaded on a hanging 2-2 breaking ball and drove it 390 feet to left field.Arkansas made things interesting one more time in the eighth. Niu reached on a throwing error by third baseman Sam Miller and back-to-back RBI doubles by Rutenbar and Reese Robinett cut the lead to 6-4. But Florida brought in Joshua Whritenhour to face TJ Pompey with two outs, and Pompey struck out for the third time in the game to strand the Razorbacks' eighth base runner of the night.Arkansas freshman Mark Brissey worked a scoreless eighth but ran into trouble immediately in the ninth when Bowen singled with one out. He was the first of five consecutive Gators to reach base against Brissey and right-hander Tate McGuire. McGuire walked Blake Cyr to load the bases then gave up back-to-back RBI singles to Strayer and Stanford to push the final margin to 9-4. It was a fitting end to a night when the Hogs couldn't strand a runner to save their season and Florida did it all night long.Arkansas entered the game averaging 2.97 walks allowed per nine innings and nearly tripled that figure in a single night.The Hogs fell to 19-8 and 4-3 in conference action. Game two of the series is Saturday at Baum-Walker Stadium.Sports columnist, writer, former radio host and television host who has been expressing an opinion on sports in the media for over four decades. He has been at numerous media stops in Arkansas, Texas and Mississippi. Daily Dunk: Best College Basketball Bets Today Pompey Batted Twice in the Same Inning — Here's What Happened Next
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