OMAHA, Neb. -- An already perilous situation took an uneasy turn by the end of the first inning Tuesday.
Florida's leadoff hitter, Dalton Guthrie, smoked Texas Tech starter Davis Martin's third pitch of the game back to the mound. Somehow, Martin's glove happened to be in the perfect spot.
Three batters later, Gators designated hitter JJ Schwarz stepped into the batter's box with two outs and Peter Alonso at first. Schwarz hit a ball that would have landed over the fence at McKethan Stadium. Instead, Red Raiders center field Tanner Gardner, battling a sore hamstring, chased the ball down before slamming into the wall.
Inning over.
More than two hours later, it was season over for the Gators after a 3-2 loss in an elimination game in the College World Series. Martin pitched seven shutout innings and entering the bottom of the ninth, Florida had no runs and only three hits.
"We had some opportunities,'' Gators coach Kevin O'Sullivan said. "Their kid on the mound made some pitches, and they played good defense. We're all disappointed right now, but the fact of the matter is, we had a hell of a year."
The No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, the Gators (52-16) went two-and-out in Omaha in a forgettable end to one of the best seasons in school history. The Gators reached 40 wins faster than any team in the program's history and earned a trip to the CWS for the fifth time in seven seasons.
However, the offense sputtered at spacious TD Ameritrade Park. Florida hit .213 (13-for-61) in losses to Coastal Carolina and Texas Tech and scored three runs in 18 innings.
Junior first baseman Peter Alonso did make the Gators' final inning of the season interesting. With left-hander Hayden Howard on in relief of Martin, Buddy Reed led off the ninth with a single. Alonso then stepped up to the plate and crushed a 2-2 fastball onto the concourse above left field for a mammoth home run, his fifth of the NCAA Tournament.
"Going into your last three outs, I mean, it's just desperation, do everything you can to knock it out and get on base and find a way to scratch a run across,'' Alonso said. "Thankfully he gave me a fastball up and [I] ran into one. JJ's up to the plate [next]. He's fully capable of running one out of the yard and tying it up."
Schwarz struck out for the first out of the inning and Mike Rivera, who finished 0-for-8 in the CWS, popped out to second. That brought up third baseman Jonathan India with the Gators' season down to its final out.
India smacked a ball toward the left-field line for a single and tried to stretch it into a double. However, left fielder Tyler Neslony made a perfect throw to retire India for the final out.
O'Sullivan liked India's aggressiveness in that situation. Peter Alonso delivered Florida's biggest hit Tuesday with a towering home run. (Photo: Tim Casey/UAA)
"I would say that that's what you need to do 100 out of 100 times," he said. "Left fielder just made a hell of a throw, and it was a perfect throw. Maybe it's a fitting way to end our season. It was a hustle play and it was an all-out play and he tried to do everything he could to get to second base to get to scoring position to tie the ballgame."
Florida's final rally of the season was too little too late, as UF was swept in the CWS for the second time in five seasons as the No. 1 overall seed. The 2012 Gators arrived here as the favorite and lost both games.
In between the edgy start and sudden end, the Gators had few breaks go their way Tuesday to help starter Alex Faedo, whose only mistake was a pitch up in the zone to Texas Tech first baseman Eric Gutierrez.
Gutierrez's two-run homer in the fourth broke a scoreless tie and turned up the pressure on Florida's struggling offense. Faedo surrendered seven hits and two runs over 7 2/3 innings, walking none and setting a school record for strikeouts in a CWS game with nine.
Still, that wasn't enough as the Gators grounded into three double plays. The most deflating one came in the sixth when Schwarz hit a shot back to the mound with one out and the bases loaded.
Martin fielded the ball, threw home for the first out, and then catcher Tyler Floyd's throw to first bounded off Schwarz's helmet and into foul territory down the right-field line. Two runs scored.
In a cruel twist that summed up Florida's stay here, Schwarz was ruled out for running inside the first-base line. O'Sullivan did not argue and later said it was the correct call. Meanwhile, in the top of the ninth the Gators fell behind 3-0 on a pair of throwing errors, one by India to allow Gutierrez to reach base, and one by Alonso on a throw back across the diamond trying to get Neslany at third. Neslany scored what proved to be the decisive run after the dramatic finish.
The CWS victory was the first in school history for the Red Raiders, the No. 5 national seed and only super regional host left playing.
"If you're not up to speed in the first couple of pitches, a line drive back to your face will sure help you out,'' said Texas Tech freshman right-hander Martin, who improved to 10-1. "After that, the game slowed down for me a lot."
Once India got up and dusted himself off after the final out, the Gators formed a line to shake hands with the Red Raiders. Another trip to Omaha and another trip home without a national championship trophy.
While others may consider that a failure, the Gators don't want to hear it. Not after becoming the first team in school history to win 50 games in back-to-back seasons.
"I know a lot of us put our heart and soul into every pitch,'' Alonso said. "And it was the goal to win a national championship. And it feels terrible because, I mean, that was the goal. And it's extremely frustrating and it doesn't feel good."
O'Sullivan agreed. Losing in Omaha never feels good.
But not getting here feels worse.
"To look at two games we've lost 2-1 and 3-2 and look at those guys in the locker room and think, boy, the season's been a failure ... if getting to Omaha's a failure, then -- I don't look at it that way,'' O'Sullivan said. "Of course we're disappointed, of course we want to stay here longer. But there's eight teams out of over 300 to get here. We've been here five out of the last seven, and we'll be here again soon."
