GAINESVILLE — Buchholz had a knack for scoring runs with two outs.
Columbia helped out with some defensive miscues too.
The Bobcats benefitted from three errors and a passed ball to score four unearned runs while scoring seven runs with two outs to shut out the Tigers 8-0 at home Friday night. JJ Gardner and Wyatt Clarke threw a combined two-hitter, with Columbia failing to record a hit until Colton Mote’s two-out single in the fourth.
When the Tigers weren’t striking out — Gardner had eight strikeouts while Clarke fanned one — they were often hitting baseballs right to Bobcats. Columbia coach Chris Howard called his team “snake bitten,” noting that hitting has been an issue going back to his team’s preseason contests.
“We’re struggling at the plate right now,” Howard said. “Credit to them. They played a good game. We hit a few balls hard that got caught, but other than that we’ve been struggling at the plate for a while now. I thought we competed well defensively. The score doesn’t really dictate how close the game was. They got four in that last inning, but we’re close. Good things are going to happen.”
Gardner, a Jacksonville signee, was strong in his five innings on the mound for the Bobcats (2-0). He allowed just the one hit to Mote while walking one batter and hitting another.
The Tigers (1-2) had two chances to drive in runs against Gardner, but Ayden Phillips was left stranded at third base after getting hit with a pitch to start the game while Goose Lord only made it to second base on a wild pitch after he drew a one-out walk in the third.
Columbia only had five base runners total for the night, going 0 for 9 with men aboard.
“He was real firm and had pretty good command of his breaking ball,” Howard said of Gardner. “You can’t get behind in the counts against good pitchers like that.”
Cedaris Smith started things off for Buchholz with two outs in the first inning when he battled back from an 0-2 count to hit a solo home run off Columbia starter Trayce McKenzie. Aidan Kastensmidt led off the second inning with a double and advanced to third base on a single by Zac Brown, whose ball snuck past Columbia shortstop Logan Brooks and was then bobbled by Mote in left field, allowing Kastensmidt to score on the error for a 2-0 lead.
McKenzie retired his first two batters in the third inning but never made it out of the frame after allowing an infield single to Blake Brewer and a walk to Kastesnmidt. That prompted Howard to pull McKenzie after 72 pitches in 2 2/3 innings where he was charged with one earned run on four hits and three walks with three strikeouts.
“He competed,” Howard said. “He didn’t have his best stuff, but he kept us in the game and that’s all you can ask for from your starter.”
Howard turned to freshman Nolan Slaymaker, who walked his first batter before working out of the bases-loaded jam to keep the score 2-0 through three innings. But the Bobcats scored another run in the fourth after Phillips couldn’t cleanly field a ground ball at third base from Kai So that would’ve ended the inning. Instead, courtesy runner Justin Williams advanced to third on a single by Gardner and then scored on a passed ball by catcher Casen Maddox.
Buchholz scored again in the fifth when Hudson Sapp reached base on a two-out bunt single before he stole second and third. After Stuart Ding singled to put runners on the corner, Ding and Sapp pulled off a double steal to perfection for a 4-0 lead.
The game then completely unraveled in the sixth inning for the Tigers after Tison McCray relieved Slaymaker, who was charged with two runs — one earned — on two hits and three walks with four strikeouts. McCray retired the first two batters of the frame but then surrendered a single to Smith and an RBI double to Brewer, who then scored on Kastensmidt’s RBI single.
Brown followed that single with another, and Columbia first baseman Max Schuler then couldn’t cleanly scoop a throw from Phillips that allowed both Kastensmidt and Brown to score.
“They’re contagious,” Howard said of the defensive mistakes. “It all starts with pitching. When pitching is getting rattled around, everybody gets rattled. That’s expected when you give up four or five hits in a row. It gets stressful and everybody is trying to make a play.”
The Tigers will try and bounce back next week with a three-game home stand, which begins Tuesday night against Santa Fe. They’ll also host Bishop Snyder on Thursday before capping the week off with a matchup against Bartram Trail on Friday.
“It’s going to be a tough week,” Howard said. “Hopefully we can turn around and get back on the winning side.”