Florida ended an impressive weekend of baseball by closing out its series against Florida A&M with a Sunday shutout, taking an 8-0 victory. UF earned a sweep in the series and its first shutout of the season. The series was a nice bounce-back for the Gators, who suffered a disappointing loss to No. 21 FAU on Wednesday night.
UF (9-3) got its best showing out of the year from pitcher Hunter Barco, who victimized the Rattlers (0-11) batters all afternoon. He pitched five innings, allowing just two hits and striking out nine batters in the process. It was a very encouraging sign for the Day 3 pitcher, who wasn’t sharp in his first two appearances of the season against Miami and Samford.
Josh Hancock took the mound for FAMU, and his day wasn’t nearly as productive. He was out of sorts from the beginning, allowing three runs in the first inning. He gave up a two-RBI home run to Jud Fabian, which set up a sacrifice double play later in the inning. The Gators added onto their lead in the second when Nate Hickey hit a double that scored two more runs.
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Things didn’t get any better for Hancock in the third, as he gave up two hits and allowed a run to score on a fielder’s choice. He was pulled after that, but Zach Morea couldn’t get out of the inning cleanly, as an unearned run scored after a throwout on a steal attempt.
The Rattlers put in Shawn Host for the fourth inning, and he finally got them through an inning without allowing any more runs. That wouldn’t last, though, as Colby Halter hit an RBI double off him in the fourth, and the Gators’ lead was stretched to 8-0.
Freshman Timmy Manning replaced Barco on the mound after five, and though he hasn’t seen a lot of action this season, his three strikeouts in just an inning of work should be exactly what coach Kevin O’Sullivan wanted to see from the young arm.
Jordan Carrion replaced Manning in the seventh, and he had some issues, loading the bases off a hit and two walks with two outs. O’Sullivan made a quick change, replacing him with Christian Scott, who evaded the danger.
Florida’s leader in batting average Jacob Young was in danger of ending his 29-game hitting streak after an 0-for-3 start to the afternoon. But with a full count in the eighth, he singled to the shortstop, who couldn’t field the ball in time to make a throw, pushing his streak to 30-straight games with a hit. That breaks the school record previously set by Tim Olson in 2000.
Franco Aleman took to the mound to close it out in the ninth, and though he’s struggled this season, he came through for the Gators, getting the first two batters to chase. The third Rattlers batter hit a ball with some carry to left field, but it was caught out near the warning track to close out the game.
After an encouraging weekend, Florida will be back in action on Tuesday for a midweek showdown against a good Georgia State team that has scored ranked wins against West Virginia, Vanderbilt and Georgia Tech already this season. First pitch for that game is set for 6 p.m. EST.
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