Dyson Deals in Bridging Bullpen to Faedo

Tyler Dyson was sensational in his seven innings over the two Super Regional games Monday. (Photo: Tim Casey/UAA Communications)

Dyson Deals in Bridging Bullpen to Faedo

Tuesday, June 13, 2017 | Baseball, Chris Harry

The UF freshman right-hander fired seven scoreless games in two appearances Monday to help the Gators capture their Super Regional showdown against Wake Forest.

By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Junior catcher JJ Schwarz, who mashed the two-run homer that helped propel No. 4 Florida to its 3-0 Super Regional-clinching defeat Monday night of Wake Forest, had just finished answering a postgame question about his team's rollercoaster of a season when another inquiry was lobbed to a different Gator on the podium.

"Wait," Schwarz interrupted. "I don't know if I'm going to get another another question, so I just want to say how big Tyler Dyson's performance was for us. We wouldn't have won today without that."

Raise your hand, Gator fan, if you saw Dyson's heroics coming.

We're waiting.

Actually, Dyson may have provided just the relief performance Florida coach Kevin O'Sullivan has been waiting for from his bullpen all season.

"Tyler Dyson was really, really good," O'Sullivan said. "He gave us exactly what we needed."

And when the Gators (47-18) needed it most.

"I just tried to be more consistent," the 6-foot-2 right-hander said of his two appearances Monday that totaled seven innings of two-hit ball and seven strikeouts against the nation's No. 1 power-hitting team, a display that got Dyson his third win against no defeats this season. "I trusted my stuff today more than I had all season."

Twice, in fact.

Dyson, the freshman from Bradenton, Fla., woke up Monday just shy of 27 innings of work in his 21 appearances on a college pitching mound and an ERA of 4.39. Truth be told, he was just another guy in a bullpen that after two days of stop-and-start baseball due to torrential downpours — nearly 10 total hours of rain delays at this Supers site — was going to have a huge hand in whether the Gators clinched a third straight trip to the College World Series.

As it turned out, Dyson got a turn in Game 2, which was resumed in the early afternoon after being suspended Sunday night. He worked a scoreless eighth and ninth against the Demon Deacons' monster bats (and NCAA-leading 106 home runs) before passing the baton to closer Michael Byrne with the score tied at 6-all.

Wake's Ben Breazeale bombed Byrne for a walk-off homer in the 11th inning of Game 2.

So, it was on to the do-or-die Game 3, with fiery Brady Singer getting the start until yet another rain delay — this one 3 hours, 14 minutes with UF leading 1-0 after the second inning — that trashed all of Florida's best-laid pitching plans.

Out of the delay, O'Sullivan tabbed Dyson to take the hill when the game resumed in the third, about four hours after completing his pair of innings in Game 2.

"There was no choice," O'Sullivan said. "We were really hoping to get three innings out of him."

Three innings, the UF coaches hoped, followed by what they figured would be a mishmash of maybe Frank Rubio (a ground-ball specialist) for a batter or two here, Garrett Milchin (who hasn't pitched in a month) for a couple there and a look at Nick Horvath (lefty), as well; all with the intention of getting to ace Alex Faedo to finish things off with his first relief performance in over two years.

Whatever it took.

Dyson, though, had other ideas, especially after navigating Wake's big bats earlier in the day.

"I was confident," Dyson said. "After I went through the lineup in the first game, I thought, 'OK, I've faced these guys,' and just thought if I could execute I could do it."

The first batter, Keegan Maronpot, popped a single to right. After that, Dyson set the next 13 Deacons down in order before Gavin Sheets lashed a one-out double in the seventh. Dyson then struck out Game 2 killer Breazeale swinging and got Johnny Aiello, who hit two homers in the matinee, on a fly out to right.

"I wanted to hand the ball off to Alex and let him finish it," Dyson said. "I didn't want anyone else coming in. I took that mentality up there just to try and put up zeroes for the guys."

For context: Wake's 3-4-5-6 hitters combined for 69 homers and 255 RBIs this season, yet went a collective 1-for-13 against Dyson.

Faedo entered in the eighth. About an hour earlier, he'd been drafted by the Detroit Tigers with the 18th pick in the first round. He took over with a 3-0 lead and a lineup of already frustrated Demon Deacons.

"We knew we weren't going to get multiple runs off him," Wake coach Tom Walter said. "We had to get runs in the middle innings."

Those were Dyson's innings and he gave them nothing. Then he handed the ball to Faedo, as planned.

Faedo did the rest.

"I was going to go out there and do it for these guys," Dyson said.

Picked a good time to do so. Now, look what the Gators have found.

"I'd seen Tyler earlier in the season leaving the ball up a little bit and not really commanding his secondary [pitches], but I thought today there was a whole new monster out there," Schwarz said. "He was throwing the ball hard, getting on the hitters and putting it wherever my glove was."

Pardon the interruption, but the Gators may have a new weapon in the bullpen. Pretty good timing, too.