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Seminoles' rally comes up short once again against UF bullpen

On3 imageby: Ira Schoffel04/08/26iraschoffel

With two runs already home in the inning and two runners on base with just one out, it might have looked like the Florida State baseball team had the rival Florida Gators on the ropes in the eighth inning Tuesday night.

Instead, it was the Gators who had the Seminoles right where they wanted them.

Again.

Relief pitcher Joshia Whritenour needed just 23 pitches to record the final five outs — four by strikeout — to secure UF’s 4-3 victory over Florida State before a sold-out crowd of 6,700 at Dick Howser Stadium.

It was the Gators’ third win against the ‘Noles this season, giving UF a sweep of the series. They improved to 25-9 on the season, while Florida State fell to 24-8.

Given the number of power arms in the Gators’ bullpen, Florida State head coach Link Jarrett emphasized to his team how important it would be to secure a lead if possible in the early to middle innings. That did not happen, however, as UF scored three runs in the fifth inning to take a 4-1 advantage.

Florida State made things interesting in the eighth when Noah Sheffield reached on an infield single and scored on a two-run home run by catcher Hunter Carns. Kelvyn Paulino then reached on another infield single, and Eli Putnam walked on four pitches to put the tying run in scoring position.

But that’s when Gators coach Kevin O’Sullivan turned things over to Whritenour, and the game was pretty much a wrap.

“The back end of their bullpen is tough,” Jarrett said. “And we allowed that to come into play offensively. Just not enough happening early and middle part of that game to really take those guys (UF’s relievers) out of the equation.”

All three of Florida State’s losses to the arch rivals from Gainesville followed a similar script. The Gators grabbed the lead in the middle innings and then slammed the door shut with their quality and depth of relief pitching.

In a 6-3 victory in Gainesville last month, the Gators’ relievers pitched 7 2/3 innings, allowing one run on six hits. In a 5-0 win in Jacksonville two weeks ago, their bullpen pitched six scoreless innings against the Seminoles.

While he would love to see his hitters be more productive in the later innings, Jarrett seemed most displeased that Florida State didn’t mount more rallies in the early to middle frames. If that had happened, there’s a chance the Seminoles don’t even see some of the Gators’ top relievers.

“You need to be ahead, and it was difficult tonight,” Jarrett said.

Led by Carns, who went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and one run scored, Florida State got solid offensive production from the top half of the order on Tuesday. Sheffield and Brayden Dowd each went 2-for-5, and the Seminoles also got one hit from leadoff batter Chase Williams and another from Paulino.

The problem was that the Seminoles got almost nothing from the bottom half of the lineup; Putnam, Fisher, freshman John Stuetzer and shortstop Carter McCulley combined to go 1-for-13 on the night.

FSU actually out-hit the Gators, 9-7, but UF’s pitchers came through with 11 strikeouts, while Florida State’s pitchers recorded seven.

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