Peterson's career night leads Florida baseball over Arkansas in series opener

USA Today

26-04-2025

Peterson's career night leads Florida baseball over Arkansas in series opener
The climb out of the SEC graveyard is far from over for Florida, but Friday night's 6-4 series-opening win against a top-5 ranked Arkansas Razorbacks team was a legitimate statement from the Gators.
Three weeks ago, when Florida was 1-11 against the SEC and coming off a sweep by Vanderbilt in Gainesville, things looked pretty hopeless. Holes can be dug out of, but the Gators didn't have much of a pathway to make things right. Sweeping Missouri was a must, taking two of three from Mississippi State in Starkville was phase two of the plan and now the Gators have knocked over the latest domino that gets them back to the College World Series.
Florida's remaining opponents are No. 5 Arkansas, at South Carolina and at No. 1 Texas before closing out the year at No. 18 Alabama. The difference between going 4-5 and 5-4 against the three ranked teams could be the difference for Florida when at-large bids are dished out. Starting off this final month of regular season action with a win against a top-5 team leaves all the possibilities open for Florida to make a run.
The Gators only needed seven hits to score six runs between the third and fourth innings. Liam Peterson was every bit the Friday night SEC starter Kevin O'Sullivan has tabbed him with a career-high 13 strikeouts over six-plus innings of three-run action. Jake Clemente helped clean up the backside of the win as he continues to settle into that closer role, and Luke Heyman hit another home run to keep the lead strong.
LP makes a statement
Liam Peterson's career night couldn't have come at a better time for Florida. Good teams need their ace to play like an ace, and the Gators were riding Aidan King instead of Peterson for a while there. King's great, but Peterson is up first. Peterson has a year of experience under his belt, giving him a first-hand look at what it takes to be the No. 1 arm on an SEC staff that's expected to win it all every year.
Peterson has been fine all year, but he hasn't delivered that lights-out night the No. 1 is supposed to have every once and a while. His best against an SEC school might have been last week when he allowed three earned runs on seven hits and a walk. Ole Miss and Tennessee both chased him off before the end of the fifth, Missouri and Vanderbilt both walked four or more times against him and Peterson missed the Georgia series. Something clicked against Arkansas, though.
The tight slider and fall-of-the-table changeup generated sword after sword as Peterson racked up a career-high 13 strikeouts. Eleven of those strikeouts came over the first four innings, and Peterson didn't look tired by the end. He came out for the sixth with 95 pitches in the books and only needed 10 to cruise, so he tried to do the same in the seventh. Kevin O'Sullivan gave him the hook after losing a 10-pitch at-bat to walk the leadoff man, but Peterson wanted more.
Peterson gave up two home runs to the first five batters he faced, but he was dominant the second time through the order, striking out seven of the nine hitters. Making those kinds of in-game adjustments wins big games, and Peterson putting himself in the opportunity to go deeper into the game paid off.
Luke McNeillie came out to face the next two batters, but a two-run homer moved Sully on to Jake Clemente for an extended close. Clemente handed Charles Davalan, who holds the second-most hits in the SEC, a third strikeout and got Aloy, the SEC leader in hits, to ground out and end the inning.
Get to the bullpen
Arkansas starter Zach Root matched Peterson the first time through Florida's order, striking out five of the first eight Gators hitters. Justin Nadeau broke through in the No. 9 spot with a two-out single. Root gave Nadeau a little too much attention at first and overthrew a pickoff attempt. The ball died in right field and Nadeau never stopped running, getting Florida on the board.
Florida chipped away at Root again, taking advantage of a leadoff walk in the fourth. Brendan Lawson and Blake Cyr both singled to move Colby Shelton around and tie the game. More runs with men on would have been nice, but Florida made Root throw more than 30 pitches that inning.
Bobby Boser, Shelton and Lawson all singled to right field in consecutive at bats. Lawson brought around the go-ahead run in Boser and forced Arkansas to a pitching change. Dylan Carter inherited two runners with one out and Luke Heyman at the plate. Giving up a run would have been decent damage control. Instead, Heyman took Carter out of the ballpark to give Florida a commanding 6-2 lead.
Arkansas' bullpen didn't give up a hit after that, so credit to Carter for coming back out and giving some quality work after the home run. Christian Foutch took over with one out in the seventh inning and was perfect through the eighth.
Clemente closes it out
Jake Clemente looks more and more comfortable in this multi-inning closer role by the week. In his last four appearances, Clemente has four saves, a 1.00 ERA over nine innings and a 50% strikeout rate against 30 batters faced. He's able to go right at guys and get through the order once with his best stuff.
The questions now lie with the bullpen. McNeillie didn't do great, but he'll certainly throw again this weekend and could be the Sunday starter. Clemente isn't technically burned and only needed 31 pitches to get his eight outs. It would be strange to see him play at all on Saturday, but a Sunday multi-inning close for a sweep might be warranted. That's what Sully needs from Clemente in the postseason, so it's a good test if the pitch count works out.
King doesn't need to go six or seven tomorrow with the bullpen mostly intact. A strong four or five is more than enough, assuming Billy Barlow and Alex Philpott provide a combined three innings of quality relief. McNeillie could easily close out a game like that, especially if it's close, and Florida has plenty of less proven options to try on the mound if the score isn't as close.
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