Tremendous pitching night spoiled as South Carolina falls to Florida in extras

As the ball left Dawson Harman’s bat, Paul Mainieri immediately thought his starting third baseman had delivered the hit of the night — one that would have given South Carolina its first lead.

“I thought we had a two-run single there,” Mainieri said after watching Harman’s hard-hit ground ball glance off the pitcher’s mound and shoot toward the middle of the infield.

Harman put a good swing on Florida right-hander Joshua Whritenour’s 1-0 pitch, but a great backhanded play by Colton Schwarz and a flip to second for a fielder’s choice ended the Gamecocks’ bases-loaded threat in the top of the ninth.

“I saw it take a hop, and I thought, ‘Oh, it’s going to eat the guy up and go into the center for a two-run single,'” Mainieri said to himself. “The kid made the play, and we didn’t score.”

It proved to be that kind of night on both sides. South Carolina and Florida combined for just three hits as the Gators broke a scoreless tie in the 10th inning on a Cash Strayer walk-off sacrifice fly, handing the Gamecocks a brutal 1-0 loss to open SEC play Friday in Gainesville.

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The loss came despite a phenomenal outing from Josh Gunther. Making his first SEC start, the moment didn’t appear too big for the right-hander, who allowed no hits or runs over 6.1 innings. He struck out five and walked three.

Gunther didn’t even realize he was pitching a no-hitter until he came out of the game in the seventh.

“At first, I felt a little off with my delivery, you know, first two innings, a little herky jerky,” Gunther said. “Just trying to throw way too hard. The velo was not going any higher. So after that, I settled in and actually saw my velo started to build a little bit higher and stay on the high threshold tonight.”

South Carolina (12-7, 0-1 SEC) didn’t allow a hit to the Gators until a two-out single from Sam Miller in the bottom of the ninth. Alex Valentin and Brandon Stone each pitched well after Gunther exited, but the bats couldn’t provide the run support the pitching staff needed.

Liam Peterson, Florida’s Friday starter, was nearly just as good as Gunther in what became a true pitchers’ duel. The right-hander pitched six shutout innings, allowing just one hit while striking out 10 and walking two.

The Gamecocks had only one real scoring opportunity against Peterson, coming in the sixth inning as his night drew to a close. With two runners on and two outs, Will Craddock struck out swinging on Peterson’s 98th pitch, emphatically ending the right-hander’s night.

“In the first four innings against Peterson, I thought we hit half a dozen balls over 100 miles an hour and just didn’t have anything to show for it,” Mainieri said. “Had some bad luck.”

Florida’s bullpen didn’t allow a hit over the final four innings after Peterson exited. The Gators struck out 15 batters as South Carolina only had one hit in 33 at-bats and went 0-for-14 with runners on base.

“I mean, that’s the highest velocity our team’s seen,” Gunther said. “So we thought maybe there’d be some difficulties there. But besides that, the guys were competing. I mean, it was really great team effort. The defense behind me was phenomenal. Dawson made two plays that saved, I think, two runs. So for us, it’s a loss, but I think we can build off of this, because it was a really well-played game, all throughout: bats, defense, pitching. So I think we’ll be able to flush this and come back tomorrow.”

Up next: South Carolina will look to even up the series in the middle game on Saturday night. First pitch will be at 6:30 p.m. on SEC Network+. Amp Phillips (2-1, 3.50 ERA) will get the start on the mound.

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