Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Brandon Neely had not pitched in 13 days when on Saturday afternoon, with the sky darkening and a thunderstorm brewing above Condon Ballpark, he departed the bullpen and headed for the mound.

Neely's aptly titled walk-out song — "Hells Bells" from AC/DC — blared over the sound system.

I'm a rolling thunder, a pouring rain

I'm coming on like a hurricane

Neely answered the call, polishing off Florida's 11-7 win over Missouri with 2 1/3 scoreless innings for his eighth save. After his 43-pitch outing, Neely received a call from Gators assistant coach David Kopp later that night, asking if Neely thought he could pitch on Sunday should Florida need him in the late innings.

Neely said he'd be ready.
 

The Gators are thankful he was after they capped a three-game Southeastern Conference sweep of the Tigers on Sunday with an 8-7 victory.

A comfortable five-run UF lead had dwindled to two in the top of the eighth inning when UF coach Kevin O'Sullivan called on Neely's firehose to douse the rising flames of a bases-loaded, no-out jam. He retired three consecutive batters, including a 3-2 changeup that left Missouri third baseman Luke Mann at the plate helpless to end the inning.

"Kind of had a feeling that this might be a nail-biter down to the end,'' O'Sullivan said. "Neely came in and did an unbelievable job to close it out."

When you are a closer like Neely is this season, a 13-day stretch without pitching is typically something you would soon forget about. The usual suspects: a losing streak, an injury, or a lack of trust from the skipper due to ineffectiveness.

None of those apply in Neely's case.

He got tossed from a win over Georgia on April 16 for what home-plate umpire Brian deBrauwere deemed excessive celebration after an inning-ending strikeout. Based on replays of the moment and the reaction afterward on social media, most viewers instantly labeled deBrauwere the kind of guy, who, let's say, worked as a server at Outback, would likely boot you for burping after munching on a Bloomin' Onion.

Of course, the overstuffed NCAA rulebook then had a say, which required Neely to serve a four-game suspension as a pitcher ejected for "unsportsmanlike conduct." He was unavailable during last weekend's series at South Carolina, in which the Gators got swept.

"It was a hard week because I traveled to South Carolina, but I couldn't go to the field. I was able to go to the practice the day before, but when game time came, I wasn't able to be at the field," Neely said after Sunday's game with his right arm wrapped in ice after save No. 9. "I had to watch from the hotel. Watching that series go down, it really stunk. It wasn't fun watching my team play without me being out there to give them a chance to win in the late innings.

"I'm back now."

Loudly. Neely showed his mettle in the ninth inning Sunday.

"It was very intense,'' he said.

And like O'Sullivan expected on Saturday night when Kopp called Neely to check on his availability for the series finale, it turned into a nail-biter.

Neely retired the first two batters of the inning, but on a 1-1 breaking ball to JuJu Stevens, the Tigers pinch-hitter nearly tied the game with a home run down the right-field line. Gators right fielder Richie Schiekofer almost caught Stevens' drive. He barely had the ball in his glove in foul territory as he collided with the wall. The ball popped out of his glove and over the fence, narrowly foul of the pole.

"I lost sight of it," O'Sullivan said. "I couldn't tell if it was fair or foul. Lucky enough for us, it was foul."

Stevens eventually reached on catcher's interference on BT Riopelle when Stevens' swing slammed Riopelle on the left wrist through the strike zone. That put the tying run at first for Missouri's Tyler Wilmsmeyer, who had singled and scored in Missouri's four-run eighth.

Neely took a breath and went back to work. For moments like Sunday, Neely studied film of former Gators stopper Michael Byrne to prepare for the job as closer after primarily working as a starter in his freshman season.

"I threw a lot of pitches [Saturday] and going into that last hitter, believe it was a 3-2 count, and I just really needed to make a big pitch, especially with that unfortunate event that happened with the batter before that and BT," Neely said. "I knew I needed to go in and close that last batter out before they got a runner in scoring position. It kept the audience on their toes."

Gators starter Jac Caglianone, who tossed three innings and hit his NCAA-leading 25th homer Sunday, watched from the dugout.

He wasn't too concerned.

"Every time I hear his walk-out song, I pretty much know the game is over,'' Caglianone said. "Once that guy got to first, he wasn't going any farther."

Neely blew a full-count fastball by Wilmsmeyer to end it, his 74th pitch over two days. O'Sullivan fist-bumped his assistants in the dugout. The Gators raced to the mound to congratulate Neely.

After getting swept a week ago without Neely, they swept Missouri with him doing some heavy lifting.

"As a team, we all were just trying to flush it,'' outfielder Wyatt Langford said.

Neely did his part. He fist-pumped and yelled to celebrate. The home-plate umpire headed for the exit, and who knows, perhaps to grab a bite at Outback on the way home.

"There was no one more disappointed than he was that he couldn't pitch against South Carolina," O'Sullivan said. "You kind of saw it this weekend."