Sproat Pitches No. 14 Florida to Series-Tying Win Over No. 22 Miami

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Starting pitcher Brandon Sproat turned in a career-high 6.1 shutout innings to lift No. 14 Florida to a thrilling 8-1 series-tying victory against No. 22 Miami at Mark Light Field on Saturday night.
 
Colby Halter sparked the Gators (9-3) in the opening frame, doubling to right field on the third pitch of the game. The Florida second baseman came around to score minutes later during Jud Fabian’s at bat, advancing to third on a wild pitch and scoring on a throwing error by Miami catcher Maxwell Romero Jr.
 
Sproat had his best stuff working from the onset, blanking the Hurricanes (8-2) through the first-two innings and facing just seven batters. After a clean frame from Sproat in the second, Halter reached base on a dropped third strike to extend the top of the third for Florida. Jud Fabian made Miami pay, sending a line-drive homer over the left field wall for his fourth long ball of the year and increasing the Gator lead to 3-0.
 
Sproat continued to churn out zeros with the lead in hand, navigating out of trouble in the third after allowing a pair of walks. The flame-throwing righty produced his second clean inning of the game in the fourth, striking out the final batter of the frame to raise his total to five strikeouts.
 
Pitching into the sixth inning for the first time in his career, Sproat held the Canes in check in the fifth and sixth while tying his career high with eight strikeouts. The Pace, Fla. native went back out for the seventh, recording one out before ceding duties to right-hander Nick Ficarrotta. By inducing a fly out to center field and registering a subsequent strikeout, Ficarrotta stranded the lone Miami runner to hold the Florida lead at three runs.
 
The Hurricanes got to Ficarrotta for one run in the eighth via a Yohandy Morales RBI single, but the Palm Harbor, Fla. native limited the damage by retiring the next-three batters in order to send the game into the ninth.
 
At that point, Florida put the game on ice. BT Riopelle provided some much-needed insurance with an RBI single to right field to plate Sterlin Thompson. After that, the Gators put on a safety squeeze play with runners at the corners, as Josh Rivera laid down a picture-perfect bunt to bring in Thompson. Kendrick Calilao then stepped to the plate and made the game out of reach for the Canes, homering to left field for a three-run shot to make it an 8-1 ballgame.
 
Ficarrotta returned to the hill to close it out and retired a trio of Miami batters in order to secure the series-tying victory. Ficarrotta finished with 2.2 innings pitched with one unearned run allowed on two hits with five strikeouts to his credit.
 
Sproat (2-1) earned the win, firing a career-high 6.1 shutout innings and tying his career high with eight strikeouts while scattering four hits and two walks. The performance lowered Sproat’s season ERA to 1.17 across 15.1 innings.
 
Miami starter Karson Ligon (1-1) was saddled with the loss, pitching 7.0 frames with three runs allowed (one earned) on three hits and striking out eight.
 
Halter, J. Fabian, Thompson, Riopelle, Calilao and Deric Fabian all picked up hits in the victory.

NOTABLES

• Sproat set a career high with 6.1 innings pitched while tying his personal best with eight strikeouts.
• Fabian hit his third home run of the week to raise his season total to four long balls.

  • With 36 career home runs, Fabian moves into a tie for eighth on Florida’s all-time home run list.

• Following tonight’s game, Florida is now 129-133-1 including 50-81 on the road vs. Miami.

  • The Gators are 36-16 against the Canes under head coach Kevin O’Sullivan.
  • Florida has won seven of the last-10 meetings vs. Miami.

• The Gators have won eight of their last-nine games overall.
• Thompson and Halter extended their season-opening hitting streaks to 12 games.

  • Halter owns a 14-game hitting streak dating back to last season.

 
FROM HEAD COACH KEVIN O’SULLIVAN
On Brandon Sproat’s outing on the mound and him tapping into his ceiling…
“Well, I mean, you have to understand that I was with the USA Team and I’ve seen it, so I know it’s in there. And then the start against UNF, you know, in a midweek game. He went five innings. I was like, ‘that’s what it looked like.’ And then he started for two innings on Tuesday and there it was again, so I was very comfortable with him starting tonight. I would have been very surprised if he did not throw well. Not meaning he was going to win, but the way he competed and the way he threw the ball was exactly what I had seen over the summer. So, hopefully this start should give him a ton of confidence moving forward.”
 
On playing small ball late in the game and how it adds to the team’s confidence…
“We made a conscious effort in the preseason to be multidimensional offensively, and when you face guys like [Carson] Palmquist, or the guy we faced tonight, they’re really good. And to think that you’re going to sit there and score seven, eight runs, try to hit the ball out of the yard on every swing, that’s just not going to happen. We got into a situation earlier in the year, we had first and second nobody out, didn’t score. Next day, Jud laid down a drag. So, we worked awfully hard on the short game and to get that fifth run that put us up four was really big in that situation. Like you said, if we asked Jud to drag early in the game to move a couple guys up, or our four-hole hitter does it, and obviously Josh hitting sixth with the safety squeeze that just sends a message to everybody on our team that we’re going to play team baseball. And I just said, you run against really good starters like we have the last-two nights, the wind, anything hit in the air to right field is an out… Basically they’re doing what we’re asking them to do and being unselfish.”
 
On the team playing clean defensively after having a few miscues in game one…
“I think I’ve said this before, opening weekend is a learning experience. Going on the road for the first time is a learning experience. I think the game may have just sped up on us a little bit last night, but I’ll tell you, when they left here last night they were in a good spot. We went to breakfast this morning, they were loose. This is not easy. The place is sold out. It’s a rivalry game. And like I said, we saw two really good starters, as good as we’re going to see all year.”

UP NEXT

Florida and Miami face off in the series finale on Sunday, airing on ACC Network at 12 p.m.