OMAHA, Neb. – Not even Mother Nature can make Florida’s pitching staff flinch.
That much proved to be true Tuesday morning as the Gators finished off an impressive 3-1 victory over SEC foe Vanderbilt, a team which Florida now has defeated four of five times this season.
While the inclement weather that derailed the game in the bottom of the sixth inning on Monday was the story of the day going into the resumption of the contest, the domination of the Gators pitching staff wasn’t overshadowed.
With talented left-handed pitcher Grayson Garvin on the mound for the Commodores, the Gators desperately needed a strong start from freshman right-handed pitcher Karsten Whitson, who entered the contest with a solid 2.45 ERA in 88 innings.
So many starting pitchers have gotten off to slow starts in the College World Series, and for a split second, Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan wondered if the same would apply to Whitson, the hard-throwing righty who has been consistent this season.
It didn’t. Whitson, as with Hudson Randall against Texas, was sharp from the start and settled in to put together another solid showing. Against the Commodores, he sat between 92-94 mph with his fastball. He set the tone for the game, even if it was delayed and continued a day later.
“He doesn’t pitch like a freshman. He’s a big, strong kid and it’s like he’s throwing bowling balls all over the place,” Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin said. “You’re not supposed to keep kids like that and the Gators did.”
Whitson struck out five Commodores and allowed just a run on four hits in 4 2/3 innings.
“He’s pitching against Grayson Garvin, who’s the SEC Pitcher of the Year, so he had no margin for error. I am pleased and proud with the way he pitched,” O’Sullivan said. “He was best in the first inning and without his performance we wouldn’t have been in this position today.”
Amazingly, Whitson’s performance wasn’t the most impressive of the day for the Gators. That label belongs to left-handed reliever Steven Rodriguez, who took over for Whitson in the fifth inning. He ended the game on Monday and came back to finish his relief performance on Tuesday.
Rodriguez, who ultimately was making a start on Tuesday, entered the game with a 1.72 ERA in 28 appearances. His last time out the lefty allowed a walk-off home run to Mississippi State’s Nick Vickerson in last week’s Gainesville Super Regional.
Rodriguez didn’t disappoint against the Commodores, tossing a season-high 4 1/3 innings. He also struck out a career-high seven batters and allowed no hits or runs while throwing 50 pitches and lowering his ERA to 1.51.
“He [Rodriguez] was working the outside third of the plate, utilizing a cutter and slider and doing a great job of keeping us off balance,” Vanderbilt first baseman Aaron Westlake said. “Particularly for left-handed hitters, we should’ve gotten on the plate more and should’ve made some adjustments. We’ll get him next time.”
The Commodores hope there is a next time to face the Gators, but they must first get past North Carolina in an elimination game. Florida, though, now is sitting pretty with a couple of days off and a pitching staff that is filled with elite arms.
The Gators don’t have any relievers, besides perhaps Rodriguez, that need more than a day or two of rest. And they have yet to use hard-throwing closer Austin Maddox, whom O’Sullivan hopes to get into a live scrimmage on Wednesday.
Florida entered the season ranked No. 1 because of its amazing amount of talent across the board. But most importantly, the Gators were expected to have and now possess an incredibly deep pitching staff that continues to shine at the most opportune times.
And that’s precisely why they’re a win away from playing for their first national title since 2005.
Game in a nutshell
Player of the game: Florida LHP Steve Rodriguez – Though UF starting pitcher and freshman Karsten Whitson put together a solid performance, Rodriguez certainly was the Player of the Game. He came in right before the game was suspended and went back to the mound this morning. The lefty was great for the Gators, striking out a career-high seven batters and allowing no runs or hits in 4 1/3 innings of relief work. Rodriguez earned his fourth win of the season with the fantastic performance.
Turning point: Florida and Vanderbilt went scoreless the first three innings, but that’s when the Gators started putting things together. Nolan Fontana walked to start a rally, while catcher Mike Zunino followed with a single. Outfielder Preston Tucker then hit a big-time blast, a three-run shot, to give the Gators a 3-0 lead, one they’d never relinquish. The Gators are playing a fantastic brand of baseball with Tucker and others leading the way.
Where both teams stand: If you win the first game of the College World Series, you’re absolutely in business if you take care of things in your second game. Well, the Gators are in fantastic shape after beating the Commodores. They’ll have two days off before playing the winner of North Carolina and Vanderbilt, which will play on Wednesday. It’ll be interesting to see if the Gators bring right-handed pitcher Hudson Randall back against the winner of the Tar Heels-Commodores matchup. For Vanderbilt, veteran Taylor Hill expects to start the elimination game against the Tar Heels. Hill has a 2.84 ERA in 92 innings. He also has struck out 88 and walked 22 this season.
Q & A with Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan
Outfielder Preston Tucker has been hitting at a hot clip in the postseason. Have you ever seen someone get on a tear like this?
O’Sullivan: You know, former Clemson star Tyler Colvin comes to mind. As do former players we had at Clemson such as Khalil Green and Jeff Baker a few years ago. To make a run in the postseason there are always surprise stories and the best players have to play their best brand of baseball. You’re not going to win the national title if your best players don’t play their best.
Just talk about Preston’s hot streak and how it has helped the team come together at this point in the season?
O’Sullivan: I think winning the SEC tournament really helped everyone’s confidence. You had three teams tie for the SEC regular season title with no one really separating themselves. I think to win the SEC tournament, that really gave us some confidence going into the NCAA postseason. Preston really swung the bat well in the NCAA Regional and I think losing the Saturday game to Mississippi State in the Super Regional really helped us come together. I think that loss helped our club develop more toughness and we grew from that experience. We knew dealing with adversity wasn’t going to be easy. That was just a fantastic learning experience.
With the way your team has played the past two games, do you feel like your club is playing their best baseball of the season?
O’Sullivan: We have been pretty consistent the entire season, but I think with winning two games against Texas and Vanderbilt, I’ve got to say we’re playing our best baseball. I have to say we must stay focused the next two days. That’s extremely important when you have some days off. We need to have a good practice tomorrow. Whoever we play Friday, it’ll likely either be aces Sonny Gray (for Vanderbilt) or Patrick Johnson (for North Carolina). We’ll have to be ready. It doesn’t get any easier from this point through the rest of the week.
Freshman pitcher Karsten Whitson has had a tremendous campaign. Are you surprised at all by how poised he looked his first time on this stage?
O’Sullivan: I have seen Karsten develop as the season has progressed, so I’m not really surprised at all by his performance in this game and on this stage. The tough decision was trying to decide when to go to the bullpen or not. He had done his job and I kept telling myself if you would’ve told me before the game that he would give up one run over five innings, I would’ve taken that all day long. He was working behind the count a little bit (when we took him out) and they were getting some better swings off him. If we don’t have a fresh bullpen we might not take him out there, but we did, so we had that luxury. This game was about momentum and we knew it was going to be a low-scoring game. Gut feel is that I didn’t want to take him out when it was 3-2 or perhaps even 3-3.
You haven’t had the ability to throw closer Austin Maddox yet in this College World Series. What’s your plan with the hard-throwing reliever moving forward?
O’Sullivan: I would hope we will see him in the next game. That means we played pretty well throughout the contest. He’s going to be a factor at some point. We might have to throw him tomorrow in practice 20-25 pitches against live hitters to kind of get him going. We definitely need to get him going.
Kendall Rogers is the college baseball editor for Perfect Game USA and has covered the sport for over 10 seasons. He can be reached at kendall@perfectgame.org