No. 20 Florida Baseball Tops No. 13 Auburn in Series Opener
No. 20 Florida (28-11, 10-6 SEC) took game one of the season series against conference foe No. 13 Auburn (25-12, 8-8 SEC) 6-3 Thursday night at Condron Ballpark, with pitching on both sides showing their warts.
However, on Thursday, the Gators had just enough to hold on.
Auburn struck first in the top of the first when Logan Gregorio singled through the left side to score Chase Fralick, but Florida answered immediately. Karson Bowen doubled down the left field line to score Brendan Lawson and knot the game at one.
The third inning is where Florida took control. With Lawson and Ethan Surowiec on base and nobody out, Blake Cyr stepped up and launched a three-run home run to left-center, pushing the Gators ahead 4-1 and chasing starter Andreas Alvarez from the game. LJ Cormier came on in relief but the damage was already done.
Florida added two more in the fifth when Kyle Jones doubled to right field, scoring Landon Stripling and Cade Kurland to make it 6-1.
Aidan King was the story for Florida’s staff. Over six innings he struck out eight batters, surrendered just one run on three hits and threw 98 pitches, 65 for strikes. Coach Kevin O’Sullivan pulled him before the seventh despite King lobbying to stay in.
“He actually came up to me and said he wanted to go back out for the seventh inning and I said absolutely not,” O’Sullivan said.
Ricky Reeth took over in the seventh and Auburn made things interesting. Eddie Madrigal reached on a double, and after a groundout, Mason McCraine singled to right-center to score Madrigal. Reeth was pulled, and Ernesto Lugo-Canchola entered with runners on base.
Chase Fralick singled up the middle to score McCraine, cutting the deficit to 6-3. But Lugo-Canchola got Eric Guevara to ground out and strand the runners, keeping Florida in front.
Lugo-Canchola worked into the ninth before handing things off to closer Joshua Whritenour, who retired the side and sealed the win for his seventh save of the season.
The Gators will try to win the season series Friday at Condron Ballpark at 5:30 p.m. on the SEC Network. Radio coverage begins at 5:25 p.m. on 98.1-FM/850-AM WRUF.
Category: Feature Sports News, Gators Baseball
