The Florida Gators completed a three-game sweep of the Rhode Island Rams with a 6-1 win on Sunday afternoon at McKethan Stadium.
Florida’s bats remained hot –albeit not as loud as they were on Saturday –as they scored a run in each of the first three frames of the day. Florida finished with 37 runs in their opening series, the most since scoring 40 vs. Cincinnati in 2006.
Dalton Guthrie began the day with a single — his first of three hits on the day. Buddy Reed and Richie Martin flew out to set the stage for Harrison Bader. The junior came into the game after a two home run performance the night before and kept things going with a RBI double.
“What you saw today is kind what we’ve seen for a long time,” O’Sullivan said of Guthrie. “He’s a great base runner, he’s instinctual, he’s aggressive. Everything he does is full-tilt. He’ll never give you a bad effort down the line.”
“They’re hard to find; guys who will play the game so aggressively and that are not afraid to make mistakes.”
John Sternagel drew a one-out walk in the second and was moved over by a ground ball a batter later. Logan Browning, who was making his first career start, doubled home Sternagel for the first hit and RBI of his young career. Richie Martin tacked on another run in the third inning with a solo shot over the left field wall, his first home run of the season.
Making his first start of the season, A.J. Puk endured an inconsistent first frame. The tall lefty needed 24 pitches to work out of the first frame but would do so without surrendering a run. Puk worked 4.2 innings before his 76-pitch count expired. He struck out four, walked two and gave up one earned run.
“First inning, you know, it was kid of rough to get through with 24 pitches. It should be a lot less than that,” Puk said. “But I settled down and had a good outing. I just tell myself to go out there throw strikes and get ahead of hitters; let my defense behind me play.”
Florida would surrender a run in the fifth inning before tacking on one more of their own in the eight to secure the win and the opening series sweep.
HITTER OF THE WEEK:
Harrison Bader
7-12 (.583), 5 runs, 1 double, 3 HR, 11 RBI, 15 Total bases, 1 BB, 1 HBP
The junior leader who missed the first 19 games last season started 2015 off with a bang. Bader absolutely clobbered Rhode Island pitching all weekend. Bader was moved from fifth to fourth in the lineup when Pete Alonso went down with a broken foot and responded nicely with three homeruns in just three games. Bader says he’s never hit fourth in his entire life but it didn’t look that way this past weekend.
Pitcher of the Week:
Logan Shore 5.0, 4 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K, 72 pitches (47 strikes)
Shore exploded on to the scene last year during SEC play and was a preseason All-American. Pitching on a predetermined pitch count, Shore made the most of his time striking out four batters in five innings.
Quote of the weekend:
Dalton Guthrie on how he felt on opening night –
“The first night was obviously exciting. I couldn’t really feel my hands the first at bat, I was a little nervous.”