For the better part of three seasons Logan Shore has picked up his team each Friday night when he toed the rubber. On Friday night, with Shore not at his sharpest, the Florida Gators offense returned the favor.
The Gators (15-1) belted a season-high 20 hits on their way to a 16-5 dismantling of the Harvard Crimson (2-3), Florida’s ninth consecutive win.
“Yeah, he didn’t have his best stuff but I still think he pitched very well,” second baseman Deacon Liput said. “He threw the ball well when he needed to. It’s very good to pick him up because he does that for us most of the time.”
Shore started the first inning in his normal form; inducing two fly outs and ended the frame with a strikeout to extend his scoreless innings streak to 18.1. The Gators gave him a cushion by coming out of the gates swinging.
After two quick outs JJ Schwarz stayed back on an off speed pitch and singled into right. Pete Alonso drew a walk and Liput drove in Schwarz with a single into center field. Mike Rivera followed that up with his fourth homerun of the season, a deep shot over the wall in left center, to extend the lead to 4-0.
Shore returned to the mound in the second and quickly gave up a double to Harvard third baseman John Fallon. Conor Quinn drove Fallon in with a single and was brought home just two batters later to cut the Florida lead in half.
Shore worked out of the second without allowing any more damage. Buddy Reed drove in Jonathan India in the bottom half of the frame to bring the lead to 5-2.
Florida’s ace struck out the first two batters he faced in the third then allowed a two-out single to Patrick McColl. Fallon then made quick work of a Shore fastball, reversing the pitch over the wall in left field; the first homerun Shore has surrendered this season. It was a sign of things to come. The Florida pitching staff doesn’t walk many batters and the Crimson came in with the game plan to be aggressive in the box.
Once again the bats picked up Shore in the bottom of the third. Florida scored six runs on six hits, sent 10 batters to the plate, highlighted by doubles from Dalton Guthrie and Pete Alonso and a two-RBI single from Deacon Liput — who had four RBI on the night.
“Sometimes you get double digit hits and it’s not a great offensive night. You can tell by the swings,” head coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “I thought they had some really good swings tonight.”
Shore settled down, not allowing a run in the fourth or fifth innings. He surrendered just three hits and one more run, coming on a sacrifice fly in the sixth, before ending his night.
Scott Moss replaced Shore and the lefty brought his best. Moss threw two innings of one hit baseball, striking out five along the way.
“I needed to get Scott out there,” said O’Sullivan. “If there’s one regret I have the first 15 games it’s not being able to get him out there enough. We need him.”
Both teams emptied the benches towards the end of the game and Florida tacked on four more runs in the sixth and one more in the eighth.
“We gotta come ready to play because everybody is excited about playing us,” O’Sullivan said. “I think it’s awesome but if you let your guard down and you’re not ready you’re going to get beat.”
Due to inclement weather forecasted on Sunday the Florida Gators and Harvard Crimson will play two games on Saturday. A.J. Puk will toe the rubber in the first game at 4 p.m. and Alex Faedo will get the ball in the second game, which will start approximately 45 minutes after the completion of the first game.