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UCF
No. 2 Florida Uses Balanced Offense To Handle No. 9 UCF, 10-2
Thursday, March 5, 2015 | Baseball
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – No. 2 Florida (11-2) scored seven runs over the first four innings in a 10-2 victory over No. 9 UCF (11-2) on Wednesday night at McKethan Stadium. Eight of the nine UF starters had at least one hit and sophomore Kirby Snead (1-0) pitched 2.1 scoreless innings as the Gators split the mid-week series with the Knights by reaching double-digits in runs for the fifth time this season.
The Gators grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first inning against UCF freshman Eric Hepple (1-1), with sophomore Buddy Reed and junior Harrison Bader (1-for-2, three runs) scoring on wild pitches. Reed had doubled into left center and took third on a wild pitch during ball four to Bader. As Bader stole second base, the throw went into center field, enabling Reed to come across and Bader to reach third. Another wild pitch on ball four to junior Richie Martin allowed Bader to score.
Freshman Christian Hicks (1-for-4, two runs, two RBI) gave UF a 3-0 margin in the second inning with a ground ball that plated senior Josh Tobias (2-for-4, two runs), who had roped a one-out triple into right center field.
Bader lined his sixth homer of the campaign into the left-field bleachers off of senior reliever Tanner Olson with one down in the third inning for his team-leading 20th RBI.
Senior Dylan Moore started the fourth with a round-tripper to left field for the Knights' initial hit of the game against sophomore Brett Morales, closing the gap to 4-1. Senior Erik Barber singled to left with one down and senior Tommy Williams had a two-out base-hit into left field, prompting a pitching change. Snead took over for Morales (3.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 3 K) and issued a walk that loaded the bases before having freshman Kyle Marsh fly out to left field.
Florida answered with three runs on three hits in the bottom of the frame to build a 7-1 advantage. Tobias led off with a single and reached third on a failed pickoff throw by redshirt junior Ryan Meyer. Hicks collected his second RBI of the night with a single to score Tobias. After freshman Dalton Guthrie (2-for-5) singled through the left side, a wild pitch advanced both Guthrie and Hicks into scoring position. A fielder's choice by Reed brought home Hicks and Guthrie scored on a wild pitch by sophomore reliever Drew Faintich.
Sophomore Ryan Larson legged out a bunt single to start the Gators' sixth, took second on a throwing error on the play and increased the tally to 8-1 by coming home on a fielding error on a ball struck by Hicks. Martin delivered a two-out RBI single to bring in Hicks and freshman JJ Schwarz (2-for-4) followed with a base-knock up the middle to score Bader.
Sophomore Eugene Vazquez connected on a homer with one down in the eighth to finalize the 10-2 count.
Postgame Quotes
Head Coach Kevin O'Sullivan
On tonight's win:
“Our guys played inspired tonight. We talked before the game about bouncing back, and I thought that our guys were outstanding tonight. There was good energy in the dugout, we swung the bats really well, we pitched better than we did last night and it was a fun night. I think they had fun.”
On Brett Morales' pitching performance:
“The first time through the order it was mostly fastballs back and forth, and he threw a couple of quality breaking balls. The changeup, for whatever reason, he didn't have a feel for tonight. We will work this week on that and I am sure it is going to be a minor adjustment for him. He hung in there and gave us what we needed, and what we needed was a good start.”
On tonight's pitching overall:
“Kirby [Snead] came in and did a pretty good job, and I thought that [Alex] Faedo was really good tonight. That's about as good as he's thrown all year and we need to get him back out there more. It was also good to get Taylor [Lewis] out there for the ninth.”
Senior third baseman Josh Tobias
On bouncing back from the 4-3 loss last night:
“It's always great to get an early lead, especially after losing the game yesterday. It gave us momentum over the game, as we scored almost every inning. It kept us rolling.”
Sophomore left-hander Kirby Snead
On coming in to relieve Brett Morales:
“After yesterday, you obviously want to come in and do well. The pitchers struggled a little bit; I struggled a little bit yesterday. We just had to battle through it. [Coach O'Sullivan] left me in, and I battled through it and kept the runs off the board.”
On giving up a walk to the first batter faced:
“For me, I always try to come in and pound the zone. Obviously, I didn't do that at first, but I just battled through it. I stayed with it and trusted my stuff. We had a comfortable lead so I thought we would be alright.”
Freshman first baseman Christian Hicks
On getting the win tonight:
“It's great. We needed to bounce back from last night's game. We had great hitting tonight and had great defense again. The pitchers did a better job of coming in and throwing strikes out of the bullpen.”
Postgame Notes
- The Gators have now taken 10 of the past 15 meetings against the Knights.
- Head Coach Kevin O'Sullivan is now 8-3 (.727) against UCF, 6-1 (.857) in Gainesville and 2-2 (.500) in Orlando.
- The Gator offense scored double-digit runs for the fifth time this season.
- Florida did not commit any errors for the fourth time in five games.
- UF scored multiple runs in the first, fourth and sixth innings.
- Florida more than doubled its hit total from last night's contest at UCF, going from five to 11.
- Josh Tobias is 11-for-22 in his last five games, including his second triple of the year in the second inning.
- Harrison Bader has 20 RBI in 13 games after driving in a career-high 24 runs in 44 games last year. He matched his career high for the second night in a row with three walks.
- Christian Hicks doubled his season RBI total by tying his career-best of two RBI.
- Kirby Snead registered his first win of the campaign with a season-high 2.1 scoreless innings in which he had two strikeouts and gave up one hit.
Up Next
The Gators will welcome Maine (4-9) to McKethan Stadium for a weekend series that starts on Friday night. The action can be heard on the Gator IMG Sports Network with Jeff Cardozo and Steve Russell and the entire series will be carried on SEC Network+ with Nick Belmonte and Larry Vettel through participating TV providers only through WatchESPN.
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