Behind four early runs and a complete game from Logan Shore the Florida Gator baseball team took Game One on the road against Mississippi State 6-3 on Friday night. UF is now 29-10 overall and 10-6 in SEC play.
Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan is proud of how his team played.
“This is a good win for us. This is a tough place to play; the fans were into it and I just want to build off what our offense was able to do early in the game and like I said off of what Logan did. That’s as good as he’s (Shore) looked pretty much all year.”
Florida jumped out to an early lead in the top of the first putting four runs on the board. Josh Tobias came up to the plate with the bases loaded and sent everyone home with a bases clearing triple to right center. Tobias would be brought home by JJ Schwarz who hit a groundout to the shortstop making things 4-0 in the first frame.
O’Sullivan talks about Tobias’ at bat in the first.
“Josh’s hit there to clear the bases was huge and that’s what you need. You need to have a really good at bat in key situations and Josh was able to do that.”
Logan Shore threw his second complete game of the season and his third game in the last four where he’s pitched at least eight innings. Shore gave up three runs to the Bulldogs in the fourth but was lights out the next five innings giving up only one hit and striking out two.
O’Sullivan say’s he was pleased with how Shore pitched.
“As far as his crispness and getting after hitters and locating I’m really pleased with how he looked the second half of the ball game, the fifth through the ninth. To be honest I can’t wait to get him out there next Friday again.”
Florida added two insurance runs in the fifth on an RBI groundout from Peter Alonso and an RBI double from Tobias, his fourth RBI of the game. Dalton Guthrie was effective at the plate as well going 3 for-4 and scoring two runs; he now leads the team with 17 multi-hit games.
The Orange and Blue send sophomore Dane Dunning to the mound for Game Two to oppose Mississippi State right-hander Austin Sexton. First pitch is set for 3pm but you can catch the call with Jeff Cardozo and Steve Russell here on ESPN 850 WRUF at 2:55pm.
Sound from tonight’s game below: