No. 5 Arkansas fell to Florida 6-4 on Friday in the first of a three-game SEC series in Gainesville.
Arkansas jumped out to a 2-0 lead after two innings on solo home runs by Wehiwa Aloy and Cam Kozeal. But then Florida starter Liam Peterson put the brakes on Arkansas' bats. Peterson (7-2) worked 6.0 innings to pick up the win. He allowed five hits, three runs, walked a pair and struck out 13. Dave Van Horn was asked how Peterson was able to dominate like that?
"Well, because he’s a first-round draft choice, No. 1," Van Horn said. "I mean, the dude throws harder than most big league starters and he didn’t lose it. He just… He made some mistakes with the fastball and left them in the plate and a couple of them left the yard, but really his stuff is amazing. He was throwing his breaking ball for a strike at will. That’s hard to do when you throw 97 mph, that you can just dump that breaking ball in there just about any time you want. He threw it a couple times down in the count 2-0 for a strike. A lot of time he’d start hitters with the breaking ball. When we hit a couple home runs the first couple innings, he just started throwing that breaking ball about 80% of the time. It’s kinda crazy when you think about it, when a guy can throw it for a strike and it’s 96, 97, 98 mph every time. But he’s just really good. A lot of talent, really talented."
The Gators started their comeback in the bottom of the third. Justin Nadeau was on first with two outs. Zach Root (5-3), Arkansas' starter, tried to pick him off. Root threw it away and the Florida second baseman was able to score all the way from first. Root worked 4.1 innings allowing six hits, five runs, walking two and striking out eight. Van Horn was asked if the failed pick off caused Root to lose his focus?
"Well, I'm sure it disrupted him," Van Horn said. "He's rolling along and he's got… I don't remember what the count was, but you had two outs and a runner on first and he picks him off. It was a called pickoff. We just felt like he was running and he was. He threw it up and out. First baseman didn't catch it. You saw what happened. The guys scores all the way from first base and It's kind of kind of shocking. As a pitcher, you'd probably rather give up a home run than that. Then he came back and finished off the hitter. He was pretty frustrated. And then the stuff just slowly started going away a little bit the command but give Florida's hitters credit. They're good and they hit the ball hard from there on for the most part."
The Gators then added a run in the bottom of the fourth to tie it at 2. In the fifth the Gators added four runs with the big hit a three-run blast by Luke Heyman over the fence in left field for a 6-2 lead. Van Horn credited the Gators for getting hot during the middle innings.
"The first two innings, he commanded everything," Van Horn said of Root. "I mean, it was change-ups, slider, cutters and they hadn't seen him yet. You know, and you start to get into the third inning or really the fourth… They'd seen him and they'd watch the guys that he'd gotten out and kind of figured out a little bit what they were going to try to… a little different plan maybe. But I don't think he was quite as sharp. That's normal when you start In your pitch count above 50, 60 as a starter there, you're not going to have as much stuff but it was more about the command than anything, not locating on the edges as much as he did the first couple innings. He was really good for the first two, three innings."
Justin Thomas Jr. homered to right field with Gabe Fraser on base in the top of the seventh to set the final margin of victory. Aloy continued his hot streak at the plate with the home run.
"He always looks good to me," Van Horn said. "You know, home runs, sometimes they come in bunches, but… Probably more than anything, he's seeing the ball pretty good. He's taking a lot of good swings.
"That was, I think it was 2-2, 3-2 count when he hammered that ball. So there were two strikes on him and I just felt like he got him a fastball. It was 97 miles an hour and he hit it a long way so hard to say, but he's just really seeing the ball well."
Dylan Carter and Christian Foutch also pitched for the Hogs. Jake Clemente earned his fourth save of the season for Florida.
Arkansas (36-8, 13-6) and Florida (29-15, 7-12) will play Game 2 of the series on Saturday at 2 p.m. and televised on the SEC Network.