Florida’s weekend series against Jacksonville didn’t exactly go as planned with the team suffering a loss in the opener on Friday. But the No. 5 Gators bounced back with a 9-0 shutout on Saturday, and in the decisive Sunday matchup, their pitching came through.
UF (13-4) took the series win with a 5-2 win over Jacksonville (4-10) in which the Dolphins stranded seven batters. Hunter Barco took the mound for Florida, and though he allowed six hits in his 6.1 innings of work, he only gave up two runs and struck out seven batters in the process.
Meanwhile, Jacksonville’s Mason Adams ran into immediate trouble. Jacob Young led off with a double for the Gators in the first, and singles on back-to-back at-bats from Nate Hickey and Kirby McMullen scored two runs, though one of them was unearned as Hickey reached second on a fielding error.
Adams started to find his groove, though. He allowed just two batters to reach base over the next three innings — giving up a double to Kendrick Calilao in the second and hitting Hickey with a pitch in the third.
Barco started out strong, allowing just one hit in the first two innings, but Jacksonville managed to get something going in the third. With the bases loaded, Dakota Julylia hit an RBI single. A sac-fly on the next at-bat tied the game at two runs, though Barco managed to get out of the inning without surrendering more runs.
After each pitcher made relatively quick work of the opposing lineup in the fourth, Jacksonville left two runners on base in the top of the fifth. UF managed to retake the lead in the bottom half of the inning when a Hickey fly-out scored Mac Guscette, and a homer from McMullen on the next at-bat put the Gators back on top 4-2.
Florida managed to gain an insurance run in the eighth when Jordan Butler hit the team’s second homer of the game. Franco Aleman entered the game for Barco in the seventh inning, and he had one of his best performances of the season. He struck out three and gave up just one hit in 2.2 innings, and he earned his second save of the season.
The series against Jacksonville was Florida’s final non-conference series of the season and the end of their 13-game homestand. SEC play begins next weekend with a three-game series against Texas A&M in Gainesville. Before then, the Gators will get their first crack against Florida State on Tuesday night in Tallahassee.
It’s been a bit of a down year for the Seminoles, who are 5-6 to start the year (including a loss to UNF). FSU beat Florida in the final game before the 2020 season was canceled, ending UF’s undefeated start and an 11-game losing streak to the Gators. Florida will try to avenge that loss on Tuesday night at 6 p.m. EDT.
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