Wildcats hold off Gator baseball rally

A couple of feet here, a couple of feet there and Florida might have pulled off another of the improbable comebacks that have spiced up this season.

Down 8-3 in the bottom of the ninth, Florida rallied for four runs but fell short in an 8-7 loss to Kentucky Friday night. The loss means that Florida will definitely be the No. 2 seed in next week's SEC Tournament.

Florida still has a chance to win a share of the SEC title because of LSU's 8-7 loss to Mississippi State on Friday night.

"It shows the type of team we have to come back," said third baseman Brandon McArthur. "We just didn't come back far enough."

Florida had the bases loaded down 8-4 in the ninth when Preston Tucker hit a line drive that looked like it would leave the park to tie the game. But Kentucky left fielder Chad Wright went to the fence and jumped with perfect timing to snag the ball.

"I thought it was gone," said Florida coach Kevin O'Sullivan. "He pulled it back in."

The long sacrifice fly -- which gave Tucker the freshman UF record for RBI in a season with 69 -- scored one run and Josh Adams followed with a shot to right-center that just missed going out, banging off the fence to score two runs and make it 8-7.

After Matt den Dekker struck out, pinch-hitter Hampton Tignor hit a chopper up the middle and was thrown out at first on a close play.

Florida is now 37-17, 18-10 in the SEC.

The Gators led 2-0 with one of the runs coming on a McArthur homer, but starter Anthony DeSclafani imploded in the top of the third. He gave up a two-run homer to Cory Farris, a two-run double to Keenan Wiley and another two-run double to Braden Kapteyn before being pulled.

"It was disappointing because I thought we had momentum," said O'Sullivan. "What's really disappointing is we gave up six runs with two outs."

Tony Davis relieved and gave up a two-run homer to Marcus Nidiffer.

Kentucky starter Chris Rusin cruised into the eighth when he gave up an RBI single to McArthur. In the ninth, he left with the bases loaded after throwing 121 pitches.

"We had some advantage counts and we let him back in the counts," said McArthur. "He's a great pitcher."

While Rusin was cruising, Davis and Justin Poovey kept working out of jams to keep the Gators in the game.

"They did what we needed them to do," O'Sullivan said.

The two teams play the rubber game today at 4 p.m. Florida needs a win and losses by LSU and Ole Miss and a split by Alabama to tie for the regular-season title.

"We have to win our last home series," McArthur said. "We have to come out ready. I know I will on Senior Day."