Florida Gators
17-4, 1-1
South Carolina
13-6, 1-1
Gamecocks Even Series with Gators
Saturday, March 17, 2018 | Baseball
The Gamecocks jumped out to an early lead and held off several comeback attempts before putting the game away with six runs in the eighth inning.
South Carolina wasn't fooled by Jackson Kowar from the start. Leadoff hitter Noah Campbell hit a ball to the right field wall that he turned into an inside-the-park home run. Two batters later, Madison Stokes launched a two-run homer to right field to make it 3-0.
Kowar found trouble again in the third inning, hitting the leadoff batter then walking LT Tolbert to put a pair on. After a fly ball moved the runner to third, a called balk brought in a run to make it 4-0.
Florida got on the board in the fourth on Deacon Liput's RBI single that scored JJ Schwarz. Wil Dalton led off with his sixth home run of the season to cut the deficit to two but the Gamecocks responded.
South Carolina knocked Kowar from the game in the sixth, scoring five runs on five hits to take a 9-2 lead.
The Gators continued to claw back with three runs in the top of the seventh. Nick Horvath hit his third home run of the season and Dalton launched his second homer of the game to make it 9-5.
Blake Reese led off the eighth with a double and scored on Austin Langworthy's RBI single to cut the deficit to three runs, but the Gamecocks put the game away in the bottom of the inning. USC hit a pair of homers and plated six runs off the UF bullpen.
Jonathan India hit his team-leading eighth home run of the season in the ninth inning for the final margin.
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Wil Dalton – For the second time this year, Dalton had multiple home runs in a game. He homered in back-to-back at bats in the sixth and seventh innings on Saturday, bringing his season total to seven home runs.
FROM THE COACH: Head coach Kevin O'Sullivan on tonight's game: "We played from behind since the first inning, but I thought our offense was really good today. We had a situation where we got the tying run to the plate in the eighth inning, they fought the entire day.
"We just didn't pitch very today, I think we had 10 three-ball counts, five resulted in walks and they had a double too. We just threw too many pitches. Too many predictable fastball counts. We've got to do a better job pitching ahead in the count."
STANDOUT STAT: 4 – For the second time this season the Gators hit four home runs in a game. On Saturday, Wil Dalton hit two, Nick Horvath hit one and Jonathan India hit one. UF also hit four home runs against UNF on Feb. 28.
UP NEXT: Florida and South Carolina will wrap up the series on Sunday at 1 p.m. The finale will air live on ESPNU and the Gators IMG Sports Network.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Cody Morris (4-1)
L: Kowar, Jackson (3-1)
Batting:
2B: Reese, Blake 1
HR: Dalton, Wil 2 ; India, Jonathan 1 ; Horvath, Nick 1
RBI: Dalton, Wil 3 ; India, Jonathan 1 ; Liput, Deacon 1 ; Langworthy, Austin 1 ; Horvath, Nick 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Dalton, Wil 2 ; Schwarz, JJ 1 ; India, Jonathan 1 ; Reese, Blake 1 ; Horvath, Nick 1 ; Smith, Brady 1
SB: Liput, Deacon 1
CS: Liput, Deacon 1
HBP: Maldonado, Nelson 1
Batting:
2B: Jonah Bride 3 ; Jacob Olson 1
HR: Noah Campbell 1 ; Madison Stokes 1 ; Hunter Taylor 1 ; Jacob Olson 1
RBI: Noah Campbell 1 ; Madison Stokes 2 ; LT Tolbert 2 ; Jonah Bride 3 ; Matt Williams 2 ; Hunter Taylor 3 ; Jacob Olson 1
SH: Danny Blair 1
SF: LT Tolbert 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Noah Campbell 2 ; TJ Hopkins 3 ; Madison Stokes 2 ; Justin Row 2 ; LT Tolbert 1 ; Jonah Bride 2 ; Matt Williams 1 ; Hunter Taylor 1 ; Jacob Olson 1
HBP: TJ Hopkins 1 ; Madison Stokes 1
