Florida Baseball Splits Doubleheader With Alabama

Ben Murphy March 28, 2015 College Baseball, Gators Baseball 97 Views

After dropping the first game of a doubleheader with Alabama 12-9 on Friday, the Gator baseball team bounces back to take an 8-1 win behind a complete game pitching performance from Logan Shore.

Shore threw his first ever complete game and also had a career high in strikeouts in the game with eight. After the game, Shore said he was pleased with his performance.

“I thought it was definitely the best one of the year so far, especially coming after two rocky ones with Tennessee and Ole Miss. We used a lot of guys early in the first game, so I needed to go out there and try to save some of the bullpen for tomorrow and try to win a ballgame. I had to get back to the basics and go out there and compete and try to get us back on top.”

Florida got off to a hot start in the first inning scoring five runs on Alabama righty Will Carter before the Tide could pick up two outs. Mike Rivera did damage in the inning when he pick up an RBI in his seventh straight game when he drove in Florida’s fourth run. Josh Tobias, Jeremy Vasquez, and Buddy Reed all drove in runs as well.

Alabama scored its lone run in the second inning but Florida tacked on single runs in the third, fourth and fifth innings. Ryan Larson gave UF a 7-1 lead when he drove in JJ Schwarz in the fourth inning and freshman Jeremy Vasquez hit his first career homer in the fifth to end the UF scoring.

Florida head coach Kevin O’Sullivan knows this win was huge.

“It was a really good effort by our offense. The guys swung the bats really well all day. It would have been easy for us to hang our heads and not compete, but they did the opposite. They scored in the seventh and eighth innings to give us a chance (in the first game).”

Florida had 29 hits combined in the doubleheader.

In the first game, Alabama used a seven run inning to build a 9-4 lead but Florida battled back to tie the game before Alabama scored three runs in the 10th inning to get the win. The loss went to closer Taylor Lewis.

Florida is now 22-6 on the year and 4-4 in SEC play. The series ends today with Dane Dunning set to start on the mound for Florida; ESPN 850 WRUF has all the live action starting at 12:55 pm.

Sound from the game