There is a light at the end of the tunnel for the Florida Gators to make the NCAA Tournament for baseball, but to get there, they still need to take the series from South Carolina.
Florida's ace, Liam Peterson, took the mound, threw five pitches, and magically, the game got put into a weather delay.
The decision to even start the game in the first place was a source of controversy as Peterson's day was done, but when the game did restart three hours later, the Gator Boys stayed hot and emerged with a 9-5.
Florida Baseball takes game one over South Carolina
According to the SEC manual, the home team makes the call regarding weather-related situations before a game starts, and then it is up to the crew chief once the game starts.
So even if Kevin O'Sullivan objected to the game starting because he knew Peterson would be at risk of getting shut down early, South Carolina held all the cards in the decision to start the game rather than postpone it.
O'Sullivan stated after the game that Peterson would come back and start on Sunday, but that would also alter his spot in the rotation next week against Texas.
So we'll never know whether the Gamecocks were nefarious enough to try and burn Peterson or just plain incompetent, but the optics don't look great for a South Carolina squad in danger of missing the NCAA Tournament. As for the game that actually took place once both teams took the field again at 10:15 PM, Florida fell behind early 3-0 and again 4-1 in the 3rd inning.
Florida battled back to tie it at 4-4, and in the 5th inning, Ty Evans delivered the highlight moment of the game.
With the bases loaded on a 1-0 pitch, Evans launched a grand slam over center field to make it 8-4. After having hit zero home runs on the year, Evans has now homered in back-to-back games.
Jake Clemente continued to be the workhorse of the team out of the bullpen and pitched three scoreless innings for the save.
The win moves Florida to 31-16 overall and 9-13 in SEC play. If the Gators can win one of the next two against South Carolina, it would give Florida their fourth straight series win after starting SEC play 1-11.
Game two of the series has been moved up to 1 PM due to storms, proving the Gamecocks can look at a weather report ahead of time.