Florida Gators

BATON ROUGE, La. – Jonathan India hit a three run double in the fifth inning to power No. 1 Florida to a 6-2 win over No. 8 LSU on Saturday evening in the series finale. With the win, Florida won its 44th game of the year to finish the regular season with a school record 44 wins.
 
With Saturday's win, Florida (44-11, 19-10 SEC) secured the No. 4 seed in the upcoming Southeastern Conference Tournament and earned a first round bye. The Gators will play Wednesday night at 9 p.m. ET against the winner of Tuesday's LSU-Tennessee matchup.
 
India's three RBI double and two RBI from JJ Schwarz led the Florida offense while starter Alex Faedo picked up his 11th win of the season allowing two runs in 5.1 innings.
 
Florida looked motivated early after dropping the first two games of the series. After India was hit by a pitch, Schwarz lined a ball to the wall in left field for a RBI double for to give UF an early lead. Two batters later, Deacon Liput singled up the middle to bring home Schwarz for a 2-0 lead.
 
LSU responded in the bottom of the first. With one out, Jake Fraley got hold of a 1-2 pitch from Faedo and sent it into the right field seats to cut the Gators advantage to one run.
 
The Gators broke the game open in the fifth, scoring four runs on three hits to take a 6-1 lead. Jeremy Vasquez and Ryan Larson had back-to-back singles then Dalton Guthrie was hit by a pitch to load the bases with one out. India stepped to the plate and lined a pitch just inside third base to bring home all three runners. Schwarz then flied to center for his second RBI of the day as India tagged and scored from third.
 
LSU got one run back in the bottom of the inning with back-to-back extra base hits, but Faedo and Shaun Anderson closed the game out to secure the win. Anderson pitched 1.2 scoreless innings in relief.

Postgame Quotes

Head Coach Kevin O'Sullivan
On Saturday's win:
"It's been a long couple of weeks. We've been on the road three of the last four weeks. Credit to LSU, their hitters did a really nice job. I looked at their numbers coming in and they had a lot of low strikeout numbers coming in. They're pesky. They just kind of fouled pitches and fouled off pitches then you make a mistake and they put good swings on it. Their crowd was in it the whole weekend and they obviously play very well at home.
 
"The most important thing is we got out of here with one.  I thought Alex pitched well, obviously gave up the run in the first after we scored two. I thought Alex, it was one of those outings where he probably didn't have his best stuff be he really fought and battled. India's at bat with the bases loaded was a big at bat. We needed that. It's been a difficult couple of days here. At the end of the day we're the fourth seed so we get a bye and play the winner of Tennessee and LSU.
 
"It's not the weekend we wanted, but realistically when you get a rain out and only get 2.1 out of your All-American Friday night starter and your next starter who's obviously very talented you only get two innings because he's not feeling good, you have to go to your bullpen early and have to manage things a little bit differently. It is what it is. Credit LSU. They played very, very well this weekend. I'm sure we have a pretty good chance of seeing them again on Wednesday."

Postgame Notes

• Florida improved to 33-0 when scoring five or more runs.
• Alex Faedo notched his 11th win of the season, the most of any pitcher in the SEC.
• Anderson 11th save, tied for most in SEC
• Dalton Guthrie and Jonathan India increased their current hitting streaks to five games. Guthrie has reached base in 10 straight games.
• India had three RBI for the fourth time this season.
• Deacon Liput had a pair of hits and has 17 multi-hit games on the season.

Up Next

The Gators will head to Hoover as the No. 4 seed and play Wednesday night at 9 p.m. against either LSU or Tennessee. Jeff Cardozo and Mick Hubert will have the call on the Gator IMG Sports Network for all SEC Tournament games.

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