WHAT HAPPENED: No. 1 Florida clinched an important road series win at No. 9 Kentucky on Friday with a 9-4 win over the Wildcats at Cliff Hagan Stadium.
 
Jackson Kowar went seven shutout innings on the mound and Wil Dalton had six RBI on the night to power the Gators offense.
 
Florida manufactured a run in the second inning to take an early lead. JJ Schwarz led off with a double into the right field corner and Austin Langworthy laid down a sacrifice bunt to move him to third.
 
Brady Smith made it 1-0 with a deep sac fly to center field.
 
The Gators took advantage of some free passes in the third inning to extend the lead. After three walks from UK starter Sean Hjelle loaded the bases, Dalton launched a ball over the center fielders' head for a bases-clearing triple to make it 4-0.
 
Kowar and Hjelle settled in and kept the bats at bay until UK went to the bullpen in the eighth inning.
 
The Gators promptly blew the game open.
 
Nelson Maldonado led off the inning with a walk and Jonathan India doubled into the left field corner to put two in scoring position for Dalton. He proceeded to hit his league-leading 15th home run of the season, a three-run shot high off the left field foul pole to make it 7-0.
 
Kowar was replaced to start the eighth inning by freshman Jordan Butler who had an off night, giving up a run on two hits before he was replaced by Michael Byrne.
 
India hit his 13th home run of the season in the ninth inning.
 
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Jackson Kowar – Despite getting into a few jams in the early innings, Kowar kept the Wildcats off the board through seven complete. Over his last four starts, he has allowed just four earned runs through 26.1 innings (1.37 ERA).

FROM THE COACH: Head coach Kevin O'Sullivan on tonight's game: "I thought Jackson had a really good fastball tonight. I think [Kentucky] left eight runners stranded in the first four innings and Jackson made some big pitches when he needed to. He pitched seven innings like Brady did yesterday and gave us a chance to win.
 
"Offensively, Wil had six RBI on two swings with the bases-clearing triple and the three-run homer late. I've been up here enough over the years and this is a really tough place to win. To get a series win against a Top 10 Kentucky team is not easy to do. I'm really pleased with how we've played the first two games and we'll see what happens tomorrow."
 
STANDOUT STAT: 29 – Wil Dalton hit his first triple of the season in the third inning and a three-run homer in the eighth inning. He now has 48 hits on the season with 29 (60%) of them going for extra bases: 13 doubles, 1 triple and 15 home runs.

UP NEXT: Florida and Kentucky will wrap up the series Saturday at 1 p.m. (SEC Network+ stream only).