The Gators had already clinched a victory in their SEC-opening series with a 3-1 win over Texas A&M on Friday night. An 8-4 win in Game 3 on Saturday was just the icing on the cake.
Florida completed an excellent first weekend of conference play with a big win over the Aggies in which its bats showed up hot and starting pitcher Hunter Barco got the job done. Barco allowed nine hits during his six innings of action, but he only gave up two earned runs and struck out nine batters. He earned the win, and his record moves to 3-1 on the season.
Meanwhile, Aggies starter Johnathan Childress didn’t have a very good outing on the mound. He gave up two singles to lead off the bottom of the first, and UF scored a run of a fielding error. In the third, he walked Jacob Young and gave up a single to Nate Hickey. That allowed Kirby McMullen to break the game open with a three-run homer to clear the bases, and Florida had a 4-0 lead. Childress navigated the rest of the way through the inning, but his day was done after that.
TAMU reliever Mason Ornelas ran into trouble in the fifth, giving up two singles that allowed the Gators to add another run on a fielder’s choice. Barco didn’t have any major issues until the sixth inning when he gave up three singles (the last of which scored a run to make the game 5-1). UF got that run back at the bottom of the frame, though, as Colby Halter doubled to score a sixth run.
Barco tried for one more in the seventh, but he gave up four-straight singles to lead it off, and he was pulled after giving up a run. Franco Aleman entered with bases loaded, and a run scored on his first at-bat after a passed ball advanced all the runners. But Aleman responded well, striking out the next three batters.
Aleman carried an 8-3 lead into the bottom of the ninth, and Texas A&M had a threat going with runners on second and third. It managed a run out of it with a sacrifice fly, but it wasn’t enough. Aleman struck out his fifth batter of the game to close out the four-run victory.
The Gators have nearly a week off now before they return to action on Friday night with SEC series No. 2 against South Carolina. The Gamecocks are off to another solid start to the season, and they rank 16th in the nation according to the D1Baseball Rankings, but have lost their last six games — including a no-hitter at the hands of Vanderbilt’s Jack Leiter.
First pitch of that game is set for 7 p.m. EDT in Nashville, Tennessee and can be watched on the SEC Network+.
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