Florida Gators slug their way past South Carolina

The Florida Gators baseball team kicked off the Orange and Blue weekend with a bang on Friday night.

The Gators (26-9, 7-6 SEC) used big innings in the first and fifth to build a lead and would go on to win the game against South Carolina (23-12, 6-7 SEC) 14-3 despite a less than stellar performance from Logan Shore.

The Gators’ ace got into a spot of trouble in the first inning. Two singles and a walk loaded the bases for the Gamecocks with two outs. Shore’s pitch count started to rise and he needed 35 pitches to get out of the jam.

Harrison Bader got Florida on the board in their half of the first inning with a solo home run that was sent deep into the night and over the left field wall.

The home run started a two-out rally as Pete Alonso walked, Buddy Reed singled and JJ Schwarz walked to load the bases. Jeremy Vasquez’s double down the third base line scored two, giving Florida a 3-2 advantage.

Shore gave up two runs in the second before the teams combined for no runs and hits through two more innings. Then, South Carolina tied the game in the fifth inning.

Shore gave up back-to-back singles and a walk before O’Sullivan yanked him from the game in favor of Bobby Poyner. Poyner got Jordan Gore to ground into a 6-4-3 double play but it pushed the tying run across the board.

Florida wouldn’t allow the game to remain tied for long as they exploded out of the gate in the bottom half of the inning.

Christian Hicks started things off with a lead off home run to break the tie. Richie Martin hit a one out single and was brought home by a Bader double. Bader took third on the throw home to get Martin and would score when Pete Alonso singled the next at bat. Reed doubled home Alonso, Schwarz doubled home Reed and in the end the Gamecocks would throw four different pitchers as the Gators sent 11 batters to the plate and scored six runs.

Florida added a run in the sixth and Schwarz tacked on one with a mammoth home run in the seventh, his fourth home run in the last two games and the first of four runs that the Gators would add late in the game.

Florida will host South Carolina for game two of the series tomorrow at McKethan Stadium at 6 p.m.

Nick de la Torre
A South Florida native, Nick developed a passion for all things sports at a very young age. His love for baseball was solidified when he saw Al Leiter’s no-hitter for the Marlins live in May of 1996. He was able to play baseball in college but quickly realized there isn’t much of a market for short, slow outfielders that hit around the Mendoza line. Wanting to continue with sports in some capacity he studied journalism at the University of Central Florida. Nick got his first start in the business as an intern for a website covering all things related to the NFL draft before spending two seasons covering the Florida football team at Bleacher Report. That job led him to GatorCountry. When he isn’t covering Gator sports, Nick enjoys hitting way too many shots on the golf course, attempting to keep up with his favorite t.v. shows and watching the Heat, Dolphins and Marlins. Follow him on twitter @NickdelatorreGC