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Florida A&M upset the Florida baseball team Wednesday night, winning 4-3 to give the Rattlers their first ever win over Florida. This is the second straight game that Florida has lost to a sub .500 team, losing to Jacksonville on Tuesday.
Florida head coach Kevin O’Sullivan was impressed with Florida A&M’s outing.
“Congratulate Coach Shouppe, his staff and his players. They played well tonight. They threw strikes, changed speed and had some different looks, different angles that frustrated us a little bit I think. They made one error and didn’t give us much. They deserved to win.”
The Orange and Blue jumped ahead early in the top of the first when shortstop Richie Martin reached home from third. Martin was able to take advantage of an overthrown ball to second in an attempt to pick off a stealing Harrison Bader at second.
FAMU responded to a 1-0 deficit in the fourth, with just one swing of the bat. The Rattler’s clean up hitter Ryan Kennedy launched his sixth home run of the year to deep left, giving FAMU a 2-1 lead.
Through six the Rattlers had a slight advantage in the hit column, three to two. Harrison Bader was the only Gator after six frames to reach base via a hit. Bader drove a single to left in the bottom half of the sixth that drove in Casey Turgeon from third, enough to knot up the ball game at two runs apiece.
FAMU reclaimed the lead in the 7th. Exactly as Jacksonville did Tuesday, the Rattlers took a two run advantage in the inning after a home run to left field off of Florida’s Ryan Harris. Jeremy Barlow delivered the blow for Florida A&M, his third homer of the season.
Bader struck again in the bottom of the eighth with a homer of his own; he took a 3-1 pitch to deep left center, bringing the Gators within one of the lead. It wouldn’t be enough for Florida, as the Gators fell for the second night in a row.
Brandon Fleming earned the W for FAMU going three innings of relief allowing just one run to score. Shaun Anderson picked up his first loss of the season after giving up one run in 1.2 innings on the hill.
Florida now looks ahead to a three game series against Missouri at home this weekend.
Audio Sound from the game can be heard below.
