Florida’s eight unanswered runs send Arkansas to third straight SEC series loss

BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON

It turned out to be not be much fun in the sun for the Razorbacks
this weekend in the Sunshine State.

Florida scored eight unanswered runs to erase a 5-1 deficit en route to a 9-5 victory over No. Arkansas Sunday.

It gave the Gators (30-16, 8-13) the a 2-1 series win over the Razorbacks (37-9, 14-7) after the two split games Friday and Saturday.

Arkansas has now lost 6 of their last 9 SEC games since being the named consensus No. 1 team.

It also extended Arkansas’ futility of not winning a series in Gainesville since 2012 under head coach Dave Van Horn and is the first time the Razorbacks have lost three consecutive SEC series since 2016.

“We just got to get better at a few things,” Van Horn said. “No. 1, we have to have a little better clutch hitting, left too many runners out there. Kind of the same thing happened on Friday.

“Friday (in a 6-4 loss), we struck out too many times. Kind of corrected that last couple of days, but couldn’t really get the big hit. So that happened. It kind of runs in streaks a little bit. 

“Starting pitching got to get better, has to show us a little more. That’d be the two things that jump out at me right away.”

Florida head coach Kevin O’Sullivan was thrilled with his team’s bounce back after losing Saturday’s game 7-0 and watching the visitors score 5 runs early on Sunday.

“Arkansas, this is one of the better teams that Dave has had and I have been playing against him for 18 years,” O’Sullivan said. “I can honestly say between their line up and their ability to drive the ball out of the ballpark and their pitching.

“Their starting pitching is good, their bullpen is outstanding. So we beat a really good club and that’s for sure.”

Florida took a 1-0 lead in the first inning against Arkansas starting pitcher Landon Beideleschies., the first of seven Razorback pitchers in the game.

Beidelschies got the first two outs on three pitches, but Luke Heyman and xxx Cyr hit back-to-back doubles to put the Gators ahead.

But the Razorbacks responded with five runs on three hits, the biggest a two-run double by Cam Kozeal.

Arkansas took advantage of two hit batters, a walk and a wild pitch in that inning.

“It was a really weird game the way it started obviously,” O’Sullivan said. “We gave up five their in the second and we weren’t throwing the ball across the plate. Obviously dug ourselves a hole.

“But getting that single run in the second kind of picked up the momentum again and we scored in every inning from the fourth inning too the eighth.

“So I am really proud of the guys.”

Arkansas had just seven hits on the day and only scored in the second inning.

“You can’t just sit around and hope you hit ball out of the park,” Van Horn said. “You’ve got to hit some singles every now and then. And there were a couple of times we needed singles. We didn’t need to be swinging for the fence, and we’ve got a pretty good job with that this year, fighting with two strikes, getting pitchers’ pitch counts up and maybe hitting a single here and there.

“But give Florida credit, they came out and they just outplayed us today.

Thy Gators tied it 5-4 with a single run in the second against Beidelschies and two against Razorback reliever Ben Bybee in the fourth.


Florida deadlocked it 5-5 in the fifth on Blake Dony’s off Arkansas pitcher Cole Gabler.

Arkansas turned to freshman fireballer Carson Wiggins, who lasted just two batters before leaving with what Van Horn said was an elbow injury.

Oh, yeah, it’s the bad part,” Van Horn “It’s the elbow.”

Van Horn also noted that it didn’t come on a pitch, but a pick off throw.

“He felt it when he picked it first,” Van Horn said. “Who knows when it happened? He threw the ball…  I think the couple of pitches he threw were 99, 100 miles an hour. “It just didn’t feel right when he picked. So he’s smart enough to say something and get out of there and we’ll get it looked at tomorrow.”

Florida had 12 hits, including back-to-back RBI doubles off Will McEntire after he replaced Wiggins.

“…I think everybody in the lineup had at least one hit today and they battled,” O’ Sullivan said. “They knew how important this game was going to be.”

Florida’s Justin Clemente picked up his second save of the series nd his fifth of the season by blanking Arkansas over the last three innings.

“…We held down a really potent Arkansas offense and I don’t know if you are going to see anybody in our league who has better pitching than they do,” O’Sullivan said. “We did it against some really good pitching.”

Arkansas will travel to face Missouri State Tuesday night at Hammonds Park in Springfield, Mo..

It is the Razorbacks’ last scheduled midweek game of the regular season.

Arkansas will then host No. 1 and SEC-leading Texas Thursday, Friday and Saturday at Baum-Walker Stadium.

Texas (37-5, 19-2) swept visiting Texas A&M this weekend.

Photo by John D. James