Brandon Sproat continues dazzling for the Gators
Last week in Hoover, Gators starter Brandon Sproat’s pleas to stay in the game were left unheard. Friday night after releasing his 112th offering of the night, Kevin O’Sullivan started to walk up the stairs on his way to the mound. Catcher BT Riopelle shouted at his manager. Sproat’s head snapped toward the dugout, “No. No. No.” he repeated at the coach whose stride wasn’t breaking.
“Please don’t do it,” Sproat said of what was going on in his mind watching O’Sullivan advance toward him. “BT and I were on the same page. I didn’t want to come out. BT didn’t want me to come out. He got out to the mound and I was like, ‘don’t you do it.’ He said I’m not taking you out, you’ve earned this spot.”
“Then when he walked off and everyone started going crazy, that fired me up. It was awesome.
Two pitches later, Jakob Marsee lofted a routine fly ball to left field that landed in Wyatt Langford’s glove. Sproat let out a roar that could have been heard in Ocala.
The 112 pitches were a career-high. Sproat’s line against Central Michigan was: 7.0 IP, 9 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 6K, 114 pitches (80 strikes) in a 7-3 win.
The win improved Florida’s record to 40-22. It’s the 27th 40-win season in Gators history and the 10th under O’Sullivan.
Sproat needed to be good
The Gators needed every bit of that outing from Sproat. Central Michigan started 2021 MAC Freshman of the Year and 2022 preseason All-American Andrew Taylor. The 6-5 right-hander struck out two in the first and eight of his first nine recorded outs came via strikeout. Taylor broke his own single-season school record for strikeouts in a season (125). Sproat matched Taylor pitch for pitch on the way to his fifth win in his last six starts.
“He was outstanding tonight. He needed to be. Their starter was really good, he was commanding his fastball on both sides, especially on the outside to the rightys,” O’Sullivan said of Sproat. “I knew going into this that it was not going to be easy. Central Michigan was ranked during the season, they won 42 games, they are scrappy and they got 12 hits tonight against two pretty good arms. It was a game where I knew we needed to play clean and what can I say, Brandon has been outstanding for a good part of the season.”
Gators go down early but bounce back with the long ball
The Gators gave up a run in the third inning but evened the game on a Sterlin Thompson homer in the bottom half of the inning. Colby Halter homered in the fifth inning to give the Gators a 2-1 lead. Freshman Jac Caglianone would give the Gators a cushion in the sixth with a double that plated Jud Fabian. The left-hander added two more RBI in a four-run eighth inning.
Next up
The Florida Gators will play the Oklahoma Sooners at 7:00 pm on Saturday night. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.
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