After taking the series opener the No. 3 Florida Gators (24-9, 6-6 SEC) dropped two games in a row to lose their second conference series of the season as they dropped the decisive game 5-3 to the Missouri Tigers (22-11, 8-4 SEC).
The Tigers used a five-run fifth inning to power their way past the Gators on Sunday.
Florida opened the scoring on the day with a Josh Tobias home run in the top of the second. On a weekend where the Gators bats lay dormant, Tobias provided a bright spot, hitting 5-of-9 with five RBI and four extra base hits.
“For us, offensively, we’ve got some work to do. Obviously, it wasn’t a great weekend for us offensively,” Kevin O’Sullivan said. “It’s hard to win a lot of games when you get five hits. We have some good offensive players, we just have to go home and get to work.”
On the other side of the field, sophomore Dane Dunning worked effortlessly through the first four innings. Dunning allowed just two hits and struck out four batters without surrendering a run. Dunning was able to throw strikes early on in counts and work ahead for most of the afternoon before losing his control and getting into trouble in the fifth.
Dunning gave up a leadoff double before getting an out. However, Dunning would give up three consecutive hits to allow Missouri to take a 2-1 lead before being lifted for Bobby Poyner. The senior inherited two base runners and gave up a three-run home run to Ryan Howard before getting out of the inning.
The Gators would scrape together just one hit over the next three innings before scoring two runs in the ninth. Buddy Reed led the inning off with a single and Tobias brought him home with a triple and would score a batter later on JJ Schwarz’s sacrifice fly.
Florida ended the game with a pair of pop outs.
The Gators return to McKethan Stadium to host Stetson (18-15/3-0 A-Sun) on Tuesday at 7 p.m and will then play host to South Carolina this weekend for a three game series.