The Florida Gators fell to the Auburn Tigers on Friday night at Condron Family Ballpark, 5-3, tying the three-game weekend series at one apiece. Both teams fought hard, but ultimately, the home team was doomed by a fourth-inning error that allowed three unearned runs to score.
Right-hander Liam Peterson took the mound after being moved from the Game 1 to Game 2 starter a couple of weeks ago and was the victim of that defensive miscue. Unfortunately, his offense failed to break through in the later innings — particularly a one-out, bases-loaded situation in the bottom of the ninth that ended in a 5-4-3 double play.
After the game, Peterson spoke with the press about his performance as well as other topics relevant to the game. Here is what he had to say.
How have you handled moving from the Game 1 to Game 2 starter?
“I think I handled it well. I wasn’t mad about it. I haven’t been doing my job this year, so I’ve got two options: either get mad and think I should be Friday, or turn to Saturday and just have the same mentality I did Friday.
“(Aidan King’s) doing his job and AK’s been shoving, so it would be selfish for me to get mad about it. So I think I’ve done a good job turning it over, but it’s also easy when I got those guys.”
How do you handle the error that leads to the home run?
“Those are gonna happen as part of the game. What I need to do better is… I can’t give up a homer there. Only one run scored, and I think (the score was) 2-2 at the time or something, but then I got out there, and I give up a homer.
“So I think that’s honestly what hurt us more. At 2-2, we’re definitely still in the ball game, but I make a terrible pitch — supposed to be inside. I think I threw him middle away, and he made me pay for it. So, a good swing, but I think that pitch was a little bit more of a factor than that one run that scored.”
Is this series going as expected, given Auburn’s pitching staff?
“Yeah, every week in the SEC is really competitive, but Auburn obviously has been doing a really good job on the mound. So we kind of knew that going into it. We’ve seen it the past couple of days. They’ve thrown some really good arms, so I think it was what we expected.”
Has that affected your approach, knowing how good their staff is?
“I can’t speak for everyone, but I think I don’t think we needed to make it any bigger than it was. I think if we just keep doing our thing we’ve been doing every other week, I think we would have been fine. So I didn’t try to make it any bigger than it was. I kind of just think about doing our job.”
What did you think about Luke McNeely’s four innings?
“Yeah, he was great. One mistake pitch, but other than that, I mean, he shoved, he makes it well.”
What was the importance of that going into Saturday’s game?
“We only used two guys today. He picked me up after only going five. He picked me up big, and now we have the whole bullpen for tomorrow, so we’ll be ready to go.”
How important has Russell Sandefer been in his Sunday role?
“He’s been great. He pounds the zone, obviously. You know, he didn’t do as great last week, but knowing him and just been watching him prep this week, he’s amped up for this week. He worked on his stuff in the bullpen — it looked great.
“So, I mean, we have confidence in him. He has confidence in himself and, you know, I expect him to do good things tomorrow.”
What would it mean for you guys to come out tomorrow and take this series?
“Yeah, I mean a lot. Every series is so big, as far as staying where — I know it doesn’t matter as of now, but I think we’re in second or third place (in the SEC). So I always want to be at the top just for playoffs and stuff like that, but every ranked win matters and every series matters.”
Sandefer said that guys need to be tougher — how do you feel the clubhouse reacted to that?
“I think our team’s tough. I think the stuff that we had to go through from fall to now — coaching changes, stuff like that — I don’t know if there’s a tougher group of guys that we have. This is probably the best chemistry team I’ve had in my three years here, and I think it’s because we’ve endured so much.
“So I don’t know if it necessarily made us tougher after that, but I do think we were a really tough team, regardless before or after that.”
We talked about your relationship with Aidan even before, how close are you guys?
“We talk about the lineup. Stuff he sees on Friday, and beforehand, we’ll talk about it. But when you go in there, it’s a little different. So he’s been giving me kind of cues and what works for him.
“Obviously, we’re not the same pitcher, but still knowing what he did and what worked well helps me a lot for Saturday. As far as just how he helped each other with the switch, I honestly don’t think we really talked about it all. I think we just kind of went about our business.
“Like you said, we’re so close that I don’t even think it was a big deal to either of us. I think he trusts me if I’m on Friday and I definitely trust him on Friday.”
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This article originally appeared on Gators Wire: Liam Peterson talks Florida baseball’s loss to Auburn on Friday
Reporting by Adam Dubbin, Gators Wire / Gators Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
