Auburn Evens Series with Gators

Friday, April 27

Gainesville, FL

6:30 PM

Florida Gators

35-10, 15-5

Auburn

31-13, 10-10

Auburn

Florida

Junior Jackson Kowar allowed seven runs in 4.1 innings on Friday. (Photo: Tim Casey)

Auburn Evens Series with Gators

Friday, April 27, 2018 | Baseball

Box Score

By: Daniel Apple

WHAT HAPPENED: No. 22 Auburn evened the series with an 11-5 win over Florida on Friday night in Gainesville.

The Tigers struck for three runs in the first inning off Gators' starter Jackson Kowar. After back-to-back singles, Edouard Julien hit a three-run homer to left center for the early lead.

Florida made it interesting with back-to-back home runs in the third inning from Nick Horvath and Deacon Liput cut the deficit to one, but Auburn responded with a pair of runs in the fourth to push the lead back to three.

The Tigers extended the lead with a pair of runs in the fifth and two more in the sixth to make it 9-3 and essentially ice the game.

UF scored two runs in the sixth but never got any closer.

Kowar finished with a season-low 4.1 innings pitched and allowed seven runs (five earned) on eight hits.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Austin Langworthy – The sophomore went 3-for-4 on the night with a run scored and made several great catches in left field. On the weekend he is 4-for-8 with a double and run scored.

FROM THE COACH: Head coach Kevin O'Sullivan on tonight's game: "It was disappointing. I'll have to go look at it, but it's been a while since all three starters have been sharp on the same weekend. We're going to have to figure that out because in a Regional setting we're going to have to get three quality starts to move on to Supers.

"The other thing that's been happening – it's happened to Tyler [Dyson] and it happened to Jackson tonight – we're throwing 20-25-30 pitches in the first inning. We have not gotten off to a good start. We've got enough stuff to get out of situations because our stuff is so good, but like tonight a couple balls fall and the wind's blowing out and you're down 3-0 in the first. It just needs to get cleaned up, it's that simple."

STANDOUT STAT: 33 – Jonathan India failed to reach base in the game, going 0-for-5 and snapping a 33-game streak of reaching base safely. In the bottom of the ninth he hit a ball to deep right center that was caught over the wall, robbing him of a two-run homer.

UP NEXT: Florida and Auburn wrap up the series Saturday at 2 p.m. The game will be streamed on SEC Network+ via the WatchESPN app.