The Gators returned to Gainesville on Wednesday night for a rematch with North Florida after taking a 9-6 win over the Ospreys in Jacksonville on Tuesday night. UNF once again gave Florida a tough midweek game, but coach Kevin O’Sullivan’s squad held on for an 8-3 win.
The game had the makings of a pitching duel early on, but UF’s bats eventually started to catch on in the latter part of the game. North Florida (1-4) tried to make it competitive with a small rally, but the Gators (3-2), managed to stave it off.
Freshman pitcher Chase Centala took the mound for Florida after a rough first appearance in the opening series, and he was much better in outing No. 2. He only let up one hit in the first two innings, and though he found himself in some danger in the third when Aidan Sweatt singled and then advanced to second and third off a fielding error and subsequent passed ball, he strung together two straight strikeouts to get out of the inning.
In Centala’s four innings pitched, he allowed four hits and no runs with no strikeouts. But UF’s lineup didn’t do him many favors in that span. It stranded two batters in the first inning and went three-up, three-down in the second. The third inning saw Jud Fabian break the scoreless tie with a home run to put the Gators up 1-0, but they couldn’t get anything else going.
The fourth was more of the same, with UNF pitcher Max McKinley retiring the side cleanly. McKinley was fantastic in the first four innings aside from the homer, giving up just two hits. But he started to lose control in the fifth.
The Gators had pulled Centala for Trey Van Der Weide at the top of the inning, who pitched a clean frame. McKinley allowed a single from Kendrick Calilao to lead off the bottom of the inning, and after an error and a single from Jordan Carrion, the bases were loaded for Florida. Jacob Young hit a sacrifice fly to score Calilao, and then Fabian cleaned up the bases with his second homer of the day to put Florida up 5-0.
McKinley was pulled in favor of Rafael Santos, who avoided further damage in the frame.
Van Der Weide struggled a bit in the sixth. He gave up a single and two walks to load the bases, and a double from Robbie Scott scored three runs. He gave up another hit with two outs, but a throwout at home managed to end the inning with Florida’s lead cut to just two runs.
It quickly stretched its lead again. After three singles in a row to lead off the bottom of the sixth, UNF pulled Santos for Dominick Madonna. He managed to get an out, but then he walked Calilao home. A sacrifice from Nathan Hickey added one more run to push Florida’s lead to 7-3.
UF’s bullpen stepped up after that. Christian Scott entered the game in the seventh and got three-straight batters out, while a walk from Josh Rivera and a single from Sterlin Thompson allowed Calilao to add another run on a sac-fly.
After an excellent inning of work from Scott, the Gators went to true freshman Timmy Manning, making his first appearance, to close things out. He didn’t allow any runners to reach base in the eighth, and despite giving up a single in the ninth, the Ospreys couldn’t add any runs.
Florida will be back in action this weekend at home for a three-game series against Samford. First pitch for the opening game on Friday is set for 6:30 p.m. EST with Tommy Mace expected to make his second start of the season.
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