WHAT HAPPENED: The defending national champion Gators stayed alive in the College World Series behind a dominant performance from starter Jackson Kowar, who struck out a career-high 13 over 6 2/3 scoreless innings. Kowar overmatched Texas all afternoon at TD Ameritrade Park, surrendering just five hits and two walks. All 13 of Kowar’s strikeouts were swing and misses by the Longhorns. The Gators won a game in Omaha after losing their first one for the first time since 1991, UF’s second trip to the CWS.
PLAY OF THE GAME: With the Gators up 2-0 in the bottom of the fifth inning and two on, two out, Southeastern Conference Player of the Year Jonathan India slammed a three-run homer into the left-field seats to give the Gators some much-needed breathing room.
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Florida’s lineup went 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position in its first game in Omaha and started 1-for-8 in Tuesday’s win. However, Nelson Maldonado’s two-out single in the fifth scored Blake Reese from second to give UF a 2-0 lead, and India followed with his blast for rare back-to-back hits with RISP. Overall, the Gators finished 3-for-13 with RISP on Tuesday.
CLOSE CALL: The Gators threatened to blow the game open early. They loaded the bases with nobody out off Texas starter Blair Henley in the second inning. Austin Langworthy and Reese singled, followed by a walk to Nick Horvath. However, Florida came up empty after Jonah Girand popped out to right, Deacon Liput struck out and Maldonado grounded out to short.
STRANGE MOMENT: The Gators led 1-0 in the third inning and had India at second base and Wil Dalton at first with one out when Dalton took off to steal second base. Only one problem: India wasn’t going and tried to go back to second. India was the one eventually caught in a rundown. However, instead of staying at second, Dalton raced back to first to erase a runner from scoring position during the base-running blunder.
BY THE NUMBERS: 13 — School-record strikeouts in a CWS game, set by Kowar; 13 — Most strikeouts by a pitcher since the CWS moved to TD Ameritrade Park in 2011; 5 — Number of times in school history a pitcher has recorded 10 or more strikeouts in a CWS game, all coming in the last two seasons; 21 — Team-leading home runs by India.
UP NEXT: Florida faces the loser of Tuesday night’s Texas Tech-Arkansas game on Thursday night. The Gators lost to Texas Tech on Sunday and have split four games against Arkansas, winning two of three in the regular season and losing to the Razorbacks in the SEC Tournament.
