April 7, 2000
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The University of Kentucky baseball team made four costly errors against Florida on Friday night and starter Brandon Webb was unable to pitch around the miscues as the Gators tagged him for 12 hits in a 7-2 series-opening victory at Cliff Hagan Stadium.
Kentucky (25-7, 5-7 Southeastern Conference) allowed an unearned run with an error after two outs in the first inning and made a throwing error and a misplay in the fourth that allowed Florida (25-14, 8-5 SEC) to break the game open.
Gator right-hander Jay Belflower (4-2) pitched six shutout innings in relief of lefty starter Craig Mosher to pick up the victory. Webb (5-1) was saddled for his first loss of the season despite going the distance for his first complete game of the season and fourth of his career. The 12 hits allowed by the Ashland native stands as a season-high.
The Wildcats, who entered the game with a string of 20 consecutive scoreless innings, had that streak ended in the first inning as first baseman Robert Newton muffed a routine grounder that would have ended the inning. With the ball rolling slowly away from Newton, Matt Siegel scampered home after his one-out double.
Florida manufactured another tally in the second inning as center fielder Tim Olson extended his career-high hitting streak to 20-games and came in to score on a single and a pair of groundouts. The two-run lead was short lived though as Beau Moore put the Cats on the board and evened the score with a two-out, two-run double to left center. Moore’s opposite field shot scored Newton, who attempted to atone for his error with his first of two hits in the game, and Jeff Meade.
Meade also had a hand in the next run scored in the game as his throwing error in the fourth inning skipped past Newton and into the Florida dugout. His errant toss sent one runner home and put runners on second and third with one out. After Webb walked his second of four batters in the game to load the bases, first baseman Kurt Keene sent a sinking line drive into short left-center that left fielder Aaron McGlone missed on the dive. The ball bounced all the way to the wall, clearing the bases. Keene, who was safe with a triple, overslid the base and was tagged for the second out by Vince Harrison, but the damage was already done.
Mosher and Belflower held the Wildcats to seven base hits, marking just the 13th time this season that UK was held below 10 hits. The Cats failed to homer for the fourth consecutive game, their longest drought of the season.
Both Andy Green and McGlone collected the 237th hit of their UK careers to inch closer to Mike Botkin’s school record of 241 career base hits.
UK and UF will meet again on Saturday, April 8 at Hagan Stadium for game two of their three-game series. First pitch is scheduled for 2 p.m. EDT.
