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It was a great opening night in Gainesville if you are a fan of Gator baseball. From the ceremonial first pitch delivered by former Florida great and now Seattle Mariner star Mike Zunino, to the opening win on the field, Friday night was all Orange and Blue as the Gators beat visiting Rhode Island 9-1.
Florida was led by sophomore ace Logan Shore who got the start on the mound. He pitched five scoreless innings to get the win.
“Tonight brought back memories, I think I was a little more nervous last year than I was tonight. I didn’t really know what to expect last year, coming into tonight I knew what to expect a little bit, I knew how to handle the nerves a little bit better this year,” Shore said.
The Rhode Island defense proved to be Florida’s best offense as the Rams committed five early errors to give the Gators five early runs. Harrison Bader drove in Florida’s first run with an rbi single and later hit a two run home run as well.
“It’s kinda one of those things where if that things goes over by a foot or by 100 feet you just kind of feel it. Just a good swing on the ball, I didn’t know if it was going to go out or not for sure but I kind of had a feeling,” Bader said of his homer.
Richie Martin had a run scoring single as well as the Gators spread their hits throughout the lineup. Rhode Island’s only run scored on a homer from outfielder Mike Sherburne. Florida allowed just five hits while using five different pitchers..
In all the Gators used eight freshmen in the game with three of them starting and they combined for three hits and a run batted in and that pleased Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan.
“It was a really good start for us. We had a chance to get a lot of people in there. I thought for a first night, you could tell during batting practice that we were a little bit anxious, as our swings were a little big with a lot of fly balls. I thought we still did a nice job. It was nice to see the hits scattered throughout the lineup, like I said, we had a chance to get a bunch of guys in there. Overall, I thought it was a very, very good first start for us.”
The 1-0 Gators will look to take down the Rams again Saturday when Dane Dunning takes the mound. Catch the action on ESPN 850 WRUF starting at 3:55 pm.
Sound from the game
