Last week, Florida pitcher Liam Peterson was the victim of some weather shenanigans during the series against South Carolina. Peterson had his Friday start end after five pitches due to weather, took the mound on Sunday, and as a result, had to have his spot in the rotation against Texas altered to Saturday.
And for four innings, Peterson looked like he was en route to seven shut out innings.
Then once again, the weather got involved, and when Florida came back from the delay, there was no one to build a bridge to get to the closer as the Gators gave up five runs in the 6th inning to lose 5-2 against Texas.
Weather Gods Hate The Florida Gators And Liam Peterson
Florida took a 2-0 lead off an RBI single from Ashton Wilson and an RBI double from Landon Stripling. But that was all Florida hitters would manufacture, and the Gators could not figure out the breaking stuff from Texas pitcher Luke Harrison, and even after the weather delay, couldn't figure out Thomas Burns or Dylan Volantis.
The end result was just five hits against 16 strikeouts on the day for Florida.
But even with the lack of offense, there was a feeling Florida could still find a way to win the game 2-0. Peterson was inducing lazy fly balls and looked like he could easily eat up three more innings.
A lightning delay in the 5th inning ended his afternoon, though. The debate during the delay was whether or not Kevin O'Sullivan should turn to Jake Clemente right away or try to build a two-inning bridge to him.
Florida opted for the bridge, and it was a disaster.
Christian Rodriguez came in and navigated the 5th inning in just 15 pitches.
But then in the 6th inning the Gators took Rodriguez out and opted for Jackson Barberi and that's when the wheels started to come off.
Barberi gave up a solo home run and was lifted for Mathew Jenkins.
Jenkins gave up a solo home run, too, and was lifted for Alex Philpott.
Philpott inherited one runner from Jenkins, and put two more of his own on to load the bases. With two outs on a 1-1 count, Jonah Williams, the same guy who chipped at Florida off a walk on Friday, launched a bases-clearing double into right field to make it 5-2.
That's all Texas needed to close things out.
Game three is Sunday at 2 PM.