No.4 Florida defeated UNF 6-2 on Tuesday night, winning the season series over the Ospreys after taking the first game 7-2 earlier this season.
The Gators (32-10, 11-7 SEC) received a great start from RHP Yoel Tejeda Jr, who tossed four shutout innings en-route to his second straight victory. The freshman allowed five hits and one walk while striking out four. It was nice to see Tejeda command the ball while finding swings and misses, two areas he has struggled with so far this season.
“I thought Yoel threw the ball probably as good as he had all year long,” Head Coach Kevin O’Sullivan said during his postgame press conference. “I don’t know how many ground balls he got, but he got a really good angle on his fastball.”
Florida jumped out to an early 3-0 lead after scoring one run in each of their first three innings at the dish, including Luke Heyman’s solo shot in the bottom of the second inning.
“It all started, we got to a 3-0 lead,” O’Sullivan said. “We scored one in each of the first three innings, which is good. It took a little pressure off.”
The Ospreys found the scoreboard immediately after Florida turned to their bullpen, plating two runs in the top of the fifth off the arm of Nick Ficarrotta.
Both teams traded zeros until the bottom of the eighth, where the Gators found three insurance runs including a clutch RBI single from BT Riopelle to get the scoring started.
“I think BT’s at bat in the eighth was huge,” O’Sullivan said. “Left on left in a one-run ballgame and he comes in and gets a really big hit. That was really important for him and it was important for us.”
Florida will need to get their veteran catcher going as he plays a major role in the success of the Gators’ offense. Riopelle was 1-3 at the plate tonight with two RBIs and one run scored.
The Gators’ pitching staff did an incredible job of limiting the damage done by a good hitting UNF ballclub. Despite giving up 11 hits, Florida only allowed two runs, stranding 11 Ospreys on base in the process.
Part of the reason for this success was that Florida pitchers walked just three batters in the contest. When you limit free passes, you can afford to allow more hits.
RHP Brandon Neely did not make an appearance in the game after being suspended for all of last week following his ejection.
Kevin O’Sullivan moved Freshman Cade Kurland back into the leadoff spot for tonight’s game, trying to find a way for his Gators’ team to get back in their groove offensively.
“A lot of things go into those decisions,” O’Sullivan said. “It’s not just moving Cade up, it’s maybe trying to get Wyatt to feel a little more comfortable and push everyone down one spot. I don’t have all the answers right now. Obviously, we’re not swinging the bat as well as he had the entire year, but we’ll see. It’s obviously still a work in progress. There’s a lot of different things that went into it. This past weekend we didn’t swing the bats as well as we had been the entire year, so we tried to tinker. But at the end of the day, your best guys got to hit regardless of if the hit one, two, three, four, or five.”
The Gators scored six runs on eight hits including a .429 batting average (3-7) with runners in scoring position.
No.4 Florida will prepare for their upcoming three-game weekend series against Missouri.