GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Florida baseball fell to No. 2 Arkansas in Thursday night's series opener by a final score of 8-1.
 
The Gators (19-11, 3-7 SEC) and Razorbacks (23-5, 8-2 SEC) traded zeros in the first-three innings, as starting pitchers Hunter Barco and Connor Noland engaged in a pitchers' duel. After three scoreless frames to open the ballgame, Arkansas got to Barco for one run in the fourth on an infield single off the bat of Michael Turner. The Razorbacks extended their lead to 2-0 in the fifth thanks to an RBI single to right by Cayden Wallace.
 
In the sixth, Chris Lanzilli led off with a solo home run to left field. With runners on first and second and no outs, Florida turned to right-hander Nyler Nesbitt out of the bullpen. Nesbitt proceeded to retire three of the next four Razorbacks to navigate the Gators away from further damage.
 
The game remained at 3-0 until the top of the ninth, when Arkansas put its lead out of reach with a five-run inning. Wallace and Braydon Webb highlighted the outburst with a pair of solo home runs.
 
Florida pushed across a late run in the bottom of the ninth, as Colby Halter kicked off the inning with a double to right-center field and advanced to third on a balk. Sterlin Thompson then drove in Halter with an RBI groundout to first base, bringing the score to its final tally of 8-1.
 
Barco (5-2) received the loss after pitching five-plus innings with three earned runs allowed on four hits and three walks. The southpaw struck out seven.
 
Arkansas starting pitcher Connor Noland (5-1) earned the win, tossing seven shutout, one-hit innings with one walk and seven strikeouts. Right-handed reliever Zebulon Vermillion notched the save, throwing two innings with one earned run allowed on two hits and one walk while striking out two.

NOTABLES

• Tonight marked the first time this season in which Jud Fabian, Thompson and Wyatt Langford were all held without a hit.
  • The Gators trio has recorded an RBI in 27 of 30 games this year, as Thompson drove in Florida's lone run in the ninth inning.
• The Gators are 32-36 all-time vs. Arkansas including an 18-13 mark at home.
  • Florida is 14-22 against the Razorbacks under head coach Kevin O'Sullivan including an 8-8 mark at home.
• Florida is 39-10 across the program's last 49 regular season games at Florida Ballpark.
  • The Gators are 24-7 in their last 31 regular season home games.
• Thompson saw his team-leading 10-game hitting streak come to an end.

FROM HEAD COACH KEVIN O'SULLIVAN
On tonight's loss and the team's offensive approach...
"We got the high-pitch machine to simulate the breaking ball. We didn't see anything we weren't expecting. It was a tough ballgame because I felt Hunter threw great for three innings and then they extended him in the fourth and made him throw a lot of pitches. We had two HBPs again to lead off innings and they both end up scoring. We hit another guy on a 1-2 count. Four-straight innings the leadoff man got on. It seemed like the same thing. It's all phases. It's the pitching side of things. Offensively, we didn't do anything tonight. We tried to get some momentum. Nesbitt comes in and does a great job again with bases loaded. He showed some excitement on the mound. We get a double play to end the inning and then the same thing, we get nothing going offensively."
 
On the pitching…
"[Phillip] Abner came in and got two lefties. Then we went to [Nick Ficarrotta] with a right-right switch. Fifteen pitches later there's five runs on the board. I felt like if we had kept it to a three-run game, anything could happen. We let it get away from us again. It's like a chain, everybody's got to do their job. Until we get to that point, we continue to struggle."
 
On the team's energy…
"I think we were fine tonight in the dugout. I don't think that had anything to do with it. It comes down to execution. The same thing I keep saying. We got to do a better job of getting the leadoff hitter, simple as that. When you get three hits on a night, it's just really the approach. We are pulling a lot of balls. Right handers into their dugout. Lefties pulling balls foul. We worked awfully hard this week on staying in the middle of the field. For whatever reason, we weren't able to do that tonight."

UP NEXT
Florida and No. 2 Arkansas battle in game two on Friday at 6:30 p.m. on SEC Network+.