Ole Miss evened its series with Florida on Friday, surging ahead with four runs in the eighth and two in the ninth to break a tie and beat the Gators, inn Gainesville, 8-2.
The rubber game starts at noon CT Saturday with Ole Miss’ Derek Diamond facing left-hander Hunter Barco of Florida. After using openers the first two days, Barco is a typical occupant in the rotation.
Ole Miss (20-5, 7-1) one game ahead of Arkansas in the SEC West. Mississippi State is third at 4-4 after taking the first two from Kentucky. Florida falls to 17-9 and 4-4. Vanderbilt leads the SEC East at 7-1.
Here are observations from Friday.
Doug Nikhazy had his most impactful start of the season, dominating a dangerous Florida lineup for six innings and 100 pitches. He gave up just one unearned run with 11 strikeouts and three walks while lowering his season ERA to 1.80.
Nikhazy is 100 percent without any discomfort from that chest strain that sidelined him for two weeks, and see gives Ole Miss a notable advantage on day two of every series. He’s the second best Saturday starter in the league behind Jack Leiter, and he had all four pitches against the Gators, pitching backwards with the curve ball on occasion and elevating the fastball deep into counts.
After not playing well as a team on Thursday, Nikhazy set the tone and held down Florida long enough for the offense to find its footing. He said he didn’t feel comfortable in the bullpen with his stuff, but it came together once he was on the mound.
There's a lift that aces gives teams when they are on the mound, and Ole Miss gets that from Gunnar Hoglund and Nikhazy.
Every Florida hitter struck out at least once, and the 18 strikeouts are the most for Ole Miss pitchers in an SEC game since the 16-inning affair against Vanderbilt in 2015.
Ole Miss took a 4-2 lead in the eighth when Jacob Gonzalez hit a two-run home run off Jack Leftwich with one out that also scored TJ McCants, who had singled to start the inning. Gonzalez had three hits and four RBIs, adding a two-run single an inning later. The freshman is back above .300 with a .305 batting average, and he’s hitting .343 with runners in scoring position this season.
Peyton Chatagnier’s two-run single in the ninth blew the game open and provided the highlight of the game, as Justin Bench and Cade Sammons both scored on the play. Bench slid around Florida catcher Nathan Hickey to get him out of position, and Sammons came in a couple seconds later, upending Hickey with a slide.
Ole Miss’ base-running aggression is talked about a lot, and that was an example of it working on Friday. The Rebels force the issue on the bases often and works more often than it doesn’t, though it also makes for some puzzling outs at times. Florida is a good team to test it on. The Gators are one of the most talented teams in the country without question, but they aren’t very good defensively.
Florida came into the week dead last in the SEC in fielding percentage (that’s far from an exact science at the college level) and the Gators have a tendency to double pump or freeze for a split second when other teams are aggressive on the bases. It could turn into issues for Ole Miss if Florida executes, but it’s a good percentage play to take some chances, especially against elite pitching staffs.
Drew McDaniel gave up the home run to Jud Fabian to start the seventh — Fabian’s ninth of the season — but struck out the next two batters and retired three in a row. It was a mature moment for the sophomore to bounce back and keep the game tied with no further issues. Fabian struck out in his other three at-bats, as Ole Miss has done a nice job holding him down through two games.
Taylor Broadway was goofy good, getting six outs in a row including five by strikeout. The slider is getting better as the season goes on, and his four-seam fastball has a lot of rise and is consistently in the mid 90s. Broadways’s ERA is down to 2.16, and he has 27 strikeouts in 16.2 innings. He hasn’t allowed an earned run in the past six appearances. It was his seventh save of the season.
Christian Scott did his part as Florida’s opener, giving five innings of two-hit, one-run work, but Leftwich never looked comfortable in relief. He made it through the first two innings without much trouble, but Ole Miss centered him for all six runs and all but one of the hits the final two innings.
Since the starters pitched well, the experiment technically worked for Kevin O’Sullivan, but Tommy Mace would have been dynamic if he had started on Thursday, and Leftwich might have been better not coming out of the bullpen. Things routine to normal on Saturday, but it seemed to be a lot of wasted energy, when you look at the results and which pitchers were used. It’s a wash.
Ole Miss was 5-for-10 with runners in scoring position and Florida was 1-for-9 with runners on base. Kevin Graham’s two doubles give him six on the season, one behind Tim Elko for the team lead.
