Florida’s junior voice of the Gators brought the fans to a roar in the bottom of the fifth inning when Brian Johnson came to the plate with a runner on second and two outs.
“Now batting for the Gators, No. 35 Brian Johnson!” he called out, giddy with excitement.
Johnson gripped the second pitch of the at-bat and sent it to deep center field, as the fans hummed in anticipation. It sailed into the center fielder’s glove, but Johnson had already done his damage.
He launched a two-out, three-run bomb over the right field fence in the bottom of the first inning to lead Florida (29-8 overall, 9-6 in Southeastern Conference play) to an 8-2 victory over Georgia Southern (22-17, 10-8 SoCon).
“He tried to come with a fastball in, and I just turned on him,” Johnson said. “It was a good pitch, I just got my hands on it.”
Seemingly spurred by disappointing the young announcer, Johnson added two more runs with another two-out shot in the bottom of the seventh inning, this time a double to the gap in right center field to extend Florida’s lead to 7-1.
He finished with a career-high five RBI with a 2-4 night at the plate, one day after being named the SEC Player of the Week.
“Hitters like him, once they have a couple good games underneath their belt, they seem to run with it,” coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “That’s what he seems to be doing right now.”
Senior right-hander Greg Larson (4-0, 1.80 ERA) pitched three innings for the Gators, giving up one run in the third inning when Eagles first baseman Michael Burruss scored Tyler Avera on a two-out single in the top of the third inning.
The Florida bullpen came on and closed the door on Georgia Southern, keeping the Eagles scoreless for 5.1 innings.
The Eagles plated a run in the bottom of the ninth inning, but it was too little, too late.
Steven Rodriguez pitched two scoreless innings in relief as the Florida pitching staff allowed five hits.
“We used six different pitchers,” O’Sullivan said. “They all did a nice job. A lot of guys came in with runners on base and made pitches. It was a great team effort tonight. I think this was one of the better games we’ve played in a while.”
Even starter Karsten Whitson got into the action, coming in during the eighth inning for his first career relief action and throwing one inning. He has missed time this season with injuries, and O’Sullivan said he is trying to get back into rhythm.
“He hasn’t pitched in six weeks, and we’re putting him in some tough situations,” O’Sullivan said. “Tonight he was outstanding. He was cutting the ball loose, his slider looked good, he threw a great change-up right on right. He looked really sharp tonight.
“Most of the time you need one outing like this, even if it’s a short inning – kind of get the cobwebs out of the way. He looked really, really sharp tonight.”
The Georgia Southern pen didn’t fare quite as well. The Eagles used six pitchers in relief of starter Lucas Hart (1-1, 9.82 ERA), who only pitched one inning and gave up three runs on three hits.
They surrendered a pair of runs on pitching errors midway through the game. Nolan Fontana scored on a passed ball in the fifth, before two wild pitches allowed Casey Turgeon to score in the sixth to increase the lead to 5-1.
Florida tacked on another run in the bottom of the eighth on a two-out single to left field by Justin Shafer to make the score 8-1.
After losing four of their first five games to start the month of April, the Gators have won four of their last five. At 9-6 in the SEC, two games back from Kentucky and LSU, Florida will face Georgia (24-14, 7-8 SEC) in a weekend series on the front end of a nine-game homestand.
“Just getting home, I think it’s important for us,” O’Sullivan said. “That was a tough stretch for us. We traveled — it seemed like every weekend we were on the road playing good teams.”