UF baseball withstands B-CC, Allen's mound debut

Florida's baseball game with Bethune-Cookman started as a breeze Wednesday and nearly ended in boos as a late-game implosion almost compounded the tough debut to one Gator's pitching career.

UF jumped out early, taking a 5-0 lead into the sixth inning before the bullpen gave up 10 runs, forcing the Gators to sweat out an 11-10 win.

The teams combined to bring 10 pitchers to the mound in a game that lasted a little more than three hours.

Sophomore Kyle Mullaney pitched three hitless innings and finished with three strikeouts and three walks while giving up no runs on three hits in a 74-pitch, five-inning performance that coach Kevin O’Sullivan called his best in the last several weeks.

The rest of the night was not so great from the mound for Gator pitchers.

Clint Franklin replaced Mullaney in the sixth and gave up a home run to the third batter he faced, Neal Jones, to make it 5-1.

Franklin lasted one inning before giving way to the collegiate debut of Adam Allen. The basketball sharp-shooter didn’t have the same control on his fastball. The freshman faced six batters in one inning, giving up three runs on two hits. He struggled with the control of his 27 pitches and was clocked between 83-to-87 miles-per-hour.

Michael Branham, J.K. LaCoste and Josh Edmondson finished the game and gave the home crowd of 2,762 fans a scare.

With the bases loaded in the ninth inning, Edmondson gave up a grand slam to Osvaldo Torres to make it 11-10. The handful of fans who lasted to the end were treated to a final two outs filled with drama as Edmondson forced two pop-ups to end the game.

“I was worried about the next batters,” O’Sullivan said. “I just didn’t want us to walk somebody or do something careless. I’m just glad it was one less run. I was getting a little nervous.”

O’Sullivan wasn’t quite as nervous about his bats. The Gators (29-18) got solid production from the bottom of the order. Clayton Pisani and Hampton Tignor combined to go 4-for-5 with five runs scored.

The offensive highlight of the night came in the sixth inning when the Gators went through their entire order, scoring five runs while logging three hits on three Wildcats (33-20) pitchers.

“We were hoping to get a good lead and be able to use some guys that we haven’t used in a while to rest our pen,” O’Sullivan said. “Ultimately we were able to do that. The end result wasn’t exactly what we wanted, but we got the win.”