Gators Own Rivalry, Beat Seminoles Again On The Baseball Diamond

In the second meeting between Florida and Florida State in the Sunshine State Showdown, the Florida baseball team comes out victorious again over in state rival Florida State.

Matching up in the neutral site of Jacksonville, the Gators won 4-1. Mike Rivera’s three-run homer paired with dominance from the mound led the team to their second win against FSU this season.

The Gators have won the last 9 of 10 meetings with the Seminoles.

Florida is Gator Country!@GatorsBB defeats Florida State, 4-1.

The Gators have now taken 9 of the last 10 vs FSU. pic.twitter.com/CaLH6PhNvO

— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) March 29, 2017

Florida jumped on the board immediately. Deacon Liput led off the game with a walk and Dalton Guthrie followed up with a single to put Liput in scoring positon.  It didn’t take long to bring him around as JJ Schwarz knocked Liput in with an RBI single.  After two outs Gator catcher Mike Rivera hit a long three run homer to left field to put the Gators up 4-0.   It was Rivera’s first homer of the season and those runs scored by Florida would be the only runs they would score the rest of the way.

But it didn’t matter as once again Gator pitching dominated the FSU line up.  Freshman Garrett Milchin started on the mound for Florida and on the mound. The freshman righty allowed only allowing two hits in his first start in the orange and blue.  Fellow freshman Nate Brown and sophomore Michael Byrne finished the game for the Gators, allowing just the one FSU run.  Asked to explain how dominating his pitching has been against FSU recently, Gator coach Kevin O’Sullivan explained things this way…

#Gators pitching has dominated #FSU of late. pic.twitter.com/ncPa0KxnNp

— Nick de la Torre (@NickdelaTorreGC) March 29, 2017

FSU’s run came in the sixth.  Quincy Nieporte doubled down the left field line and Rhett Aplin brought him around with a RBI single but it was the lone run FSU would score.  Andrew Karp was the starter on the hill for the Seminoles and he took the loss, tossing five innings.

Up Next For The Gators

Next on the agenda for the Gators is a weekend series on the road with Missouri starting on Friday. First pitch is at 7:30 p.m., with Saturday’s start time slated for 3 p.m. and the Sunday game at 2 p.m..