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Behind a strong outing from starter AJ Puk, the Florida Gator (20-1, 2-0) baseball team took Game Two of their SEC opener over the Missouri Tigers (14-8, 0-2) 6-2 Saturday night. Puk pitched seven scoreless innings giving up only three hits and striking out a season high 11 batters. He improves to 1-1 on the season with a 1.88 ERA. Head coach Kevin O’Sullivan says Puk looked sharp against both right and left handed batters.
The Gators opened the scoring in this one via a home run by Deacon Liput, his first of the year, and an RBI hit by Jonathan India gave the Gators a 2-0 lead. Liput says it was nice to hit his first home run but that isn’t his game.
The Gators added a couple of insurance runs with a Jeremy Vasquez sac fly in the fourth and a Pete Alonso solo homer in the sixth and India would pick up his second RBI of the night in the seventh with a single to left field pushing the Gator lead to 5-0.
Jackson Kowar relieved Puk after he pitched seven scoreless innings and Kowar walked the only two batters he faced. Nick Horvath relieved and gave up a two run double cutting Florida’s lead to 5-2. Shaun Anderson came in to end the threat and pitched a scoreless ninth to pick up a save.
Mike Rivera provided Florida with an insurance run with a solo home run, his team leading fifth of the season. This is the first game this season the Gators have hit three home runs in one game. The two home runs off Tiger Starter Tanner Houck were the first two homers the righty has given up all season.
With this win the Gators improved their winning streak to 14 games and remain a perfect 15-0 at McKethan stadium. Florida will look for a series sweep on Sunday as Alex Faedo (4-0, 1.42) gets the nod for Florida to face senior lefty Austin Tribby (2-1, 3.33). First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m. but you can tune into ESPN Gainesville 95.3 FM at 12:55 p.m. to hear Jeff Cardozzo and Steve Russell’s call of the game.
The #Gators wrap up their opening weekend of SEC play at 1 p.m. against Missouri – check out what they're wearing pic.twitter.com/vQxpWJ0Ral
— Gator Baseball (@GatorsBB) March 20, 2016
