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A quick start by Florida on Friday night helped it even its series with Arkansas and set up a big rubber match.
The Gators jumped on the Razorbacks early, scoring five runs in the first three innings, and cruised to a 7-2 win in Gainesville, Fla.
It was a rough game all around for Arkansas, as freshman Hagen Smith turned in arguably the worst outing of his young career, its offense struggled with situational hitting and its defense made multiple costly mistakes despite being credited with only one error.
Florida nearly started out with a bang by hitting back-to-back home runs in the first, but Braydon Webb robbed Sterlin Thompson of the first one and limited him to a sacrifice fly. Wyatt Langford blasted the very next pitch over the wall to give the Gators a 2-0 lead.
In the second inning, the Razorbacks appeared to catch a break when Mac Guscette popped up a sacrifice bunt, but Peyton Stovall dropped it and everyone was safe. That set up Deric Fabian’s bases-loaded walk and Colby Halter’s sacrifice fly, which doubled Arkansas’ deficit.
BT Riopelle hit the Gators’ second home run of the game in the third and then — after Arkansas scratched a run across in the top half of the inning — they tacked on two more in the fifth to squash any comeback attempt.
Here are a few key takeaways from the Game 2 loss…
Smith Struggles
For just the second time in eight career starts, Smith failed to get through at least five innings for the Razorbacks.
The freshman left-hander struggled with his command, falling behind 3-1 to the first two batters of the game and issuing a four-pitch walk to start the second inning. The Gators also got some hard contact against him when he did find the zone.
“He wasn’t locating — that was the No. 1 thing,” head coach Dave Van Horn said. “They just attacked him and he got behind in the count a lot and when he didn’t get behind in the count, they just went after the first-pitch fastball and if he missed his spot, they hit it pretty good.”
