Florida Gators
USF
Gators Down USF, 8-2, to Stay Perfect in Gainesville Regional
Sunday, May 31, 2015 | Baseball
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Sophomore left-hander A.J. Puk fired seven shutout innings and retired the final 14 batters he faced and No. 3 Florida (46-16) used two-run homers by sophomore Buddy Reed and junior Harrison Bader on its way to an 8-2 victory over USF (34-25-1) on Saturday night at McKethan Stadium.
With the triumph, the top-seeded Gators improved to 2-0 in the NCAA Gainesville Regional and await the winner of tomorrow's elimination game at noon between second-seeded Florida Atlantic (41-18) and the third-seeded Bulls. The Owls ousted fourth-seeded Florida A&M (23-25) this afternoon by an 8-1 margin. Florida can advance to next weekend's Super Regional with one more win, while the survivor in tomorrow's first game will need a victory over the Gators in a game starting at 4 p.m. to force an if-necessary game on Monday at 7 p.m.
Puk (9-3) yielded four singles, totaled eight strikeouts and issued one walk in claiming his fourth straight decision. He finished his outing by retiring the final 14 batters in a row and 18 of the last 19 after surrendering a third-inning infield hit to junior Luke Maglich. The southpaw has 48 strikeouts in 30.1 innings and is 3-0 with a 1.19 ERA in his last five starts.
The Bulls threatened in the first inning, as senior Kyle Teaf drew a leadoff walk and freshman Kevin Merrell (2-for-4) blooped a single into shallow center field. After Puk responded with consecutive strikeouts, an infield single by senior Buddy Putnam loaded the bases and the left-hander escaped the jam by catching sophomore Luke Borders looking on strikes.
Reed (2-for-5) gave the Gators a 2-0 lead in the third inning by homering to right field with freshman Dalton Guthrie aboard. Guthrie had drawn a leadoff walk from junior righty Ryan Valdes (5-4) and Reed connected on his third round-tripper of the season to right field.
Bader (2-for-5) boosted Florida's advantage to 4-0 in the fourth by launching his 14th homer of the campaign over the bleachers in left field. Freshman Jeremy Vasquez (2-for-5) had opened the frame with a base-hit up the middle and Valdes retired the next two hitters before Bader sent a 2-0 offering out of the yard.
In the fifth, Vasquez delivered a two-out RBI double to drive in freshman JJ Schwarz (2-for-4), who had singled with one down into left field, for a 5-0 margin.
Junior Levi Borders put the Bulls on the board in the eighth inning with a run-scoring double off of sophomore reliever Kirby Snead. Teaf and Merrell had back-to-back singles with one down before Snead struck out Maglich. Borders then doubled down the left-field line to score Teaf.
Sophomore Peter Alonso provided the Gators with a 7-1 advantage in the ninth with a two-run single to plate junior Richie Martin (hit by a pitch) and senior Josh Tobias (walk). A two-out grounder by sophomore Ryan Larson was misplayed, enabling Alonso to score UF's eighth run. Junior Nik Alfonso had an RBI single in the bottom of the ninth for USF.
Postgame Quotes
Head Coach Kevin O'Sullivan
Opening Statement:
“It all starts on the mound. A.J. [Puk] was really good again. I think that is four of his last five starts that, after his first inning, he was really good. I thought that offensively, we had some good at bats all night long. Multiple guys had multiple-hit nights. I thought that Buddy's [Reed] home run was really big for us to get on the board, and obviously, [Harrison] Bader's home run, I think we had two two-run homers. It was an all-around great game. We played great defense again. I thought we swung the bats well, played good defense and had good pitching. All three phases, I thought that we were very good tonight. We look forward to playing tomorrow.”
On A.J. Puk's pitching performance after 7 innings:
“He's at 109 pitches and you contemplate leaving him in because it looks like he is throwing the ball better than he did in the first. He is still holding his velocity and he is throwing quality strikes. It seems like once he gets into his rhythm, everything is a strike and everything is at the knees. Tonight's decision was not difficult to take him out at 109 pitches. But, you are tempted to see if you can get another inning out of him because it looks like he is cruising.”
Sophomore left-hander A.J. Puk
On settling down after early visit from Coach O'Sullivan in the first inning:
“Sully just told me to find my rhythm and I was able to settle down in the first inning. I was able to go out there and throw strikes. I found rhythm and everything fell into place.”
Sophomore center fielder Buddy Reed
On tonight's win:
“It's huge as a team. With [A.J.] Puk's great start, and the offense and defense, we are definitely looking forward to game three. We are going to use this momentum for tomorrow and come out and play our game.”
Freshman designated hitter Jeremy Vasquez
On being a freshman in the post-season:
“We really go into it as it's just another game and that it isn't a post-season game. It's just a regular-season game. We don't put too much pressure on ourselves. We just go out there and have fun.”
On A.J. Puk's pitching performance:
“When Puk is pitching, you know that the opponent won't score as many runs. Once we got out to a four-run lead, we felt pretty comfortable and just tried to tack on some more.”
Postgame Notes:
- Florida improved to 30-6 (.833) at McKethan Stadium this season.
- Six of the Gators' 12 hits were for extra bases, with four doubles and a pair of homers.
- Six different players chipped in with multiple-hit outings for the Orange and Blue.
- Buddy Reed belted his first homer since May 9 at Vanderbilt to open the scoring in the third inning and he was 2-for-5.
- JJ Schwarz collected his team-leading 16th double with two down in the third and singled in the fifth.
- Harrison Bader put the Gators ahead, 4-0, in the fourth inning with a two-run homer to left field. Twelve of his 14 homers this year have come at home.
- Florida played error-free baseball for the 36th time this season.
Up Next
The Gators will face either second-seeded Florida Atlantic (41-18) or third-seeded USF (34-25-1) tomorrow at 4 p.m. The game can be heard on the Gator IMG Sports Network with Jeff Cardozo and Mick Hubert, will be carried on the SEC Network with Mike Morgan and Dave Perno and available through WatchESPN.
Follow the Gators
For all of the latest information on Florida baseball, log on to GatorZone or follow the team's Twitter account @GatorZoneBB.
NCAA Gainesville Regional Ticket Information
The first 250 University of Florida students will be admitted free to each game.
Ticket prices are the following:
| Regional Books |
|
| Tournament Reserved Box | $55 |
| Tournament Reserved Chairback | $50 |
| Tournament Reserved Bleacher | $30 |
| Single-Game Tickets: |
|
| Single-Game Reserved Box | $10 |
| Single-Game Reserved Chairback | $9 |
| Single-Game Reserved Bleacher | $8 |
| Single-Game General Admission | $6 |
****************************************************************************************************************
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- The Gators' formula for success was simple on Saturday night against USF.
Buddy Reed and Harrison Bader each hit two-run homers -- Reed delivered in the third inning and Bader followed in the fourth -- and starter A.J. Puk tamed the Bulls from there, tossing seven scoreless innings in Florida's 8-2 Gainesville Regional win.
The Gators (46-16) advanced to face the winner of Sunday's elimination game between USF and Florida Atlantic. The USF-FAU game has a noon start, and Florida faces the winner at 4 p.m. FAU eliminated Floirda A&M with an 8-1 victory in the first game Saturday.
In Florida's sixth consecutive postseason win including four at the SEC Tournament, Reed golfed a pitch from USF starter Ryan Valdes over the right-field wall to give the Gators a 2-0 lead. Dalton Guthrie led off the inning with a walk, and after Bader flew out to center, Reed hit his third homer of the season.
The Gators extended their lead when Bader hit a towering shot over the left-field bleachers in the fourth to give Florida a 4-0 advantage. The Gators added a run on Jeremy Vasquez's RBI double in the fifth and three more in the ninth.
Meanwhile, after USF (34-25-1) loaded the bases in the first inning against Puk, the 6-foot-7 lefty locked in and the Bulls were unable to crack the combination.
Puk retired the final 14 batters he faced. He allowed four hits, walked one and struck out eight.
Puk threw 77 of his 109 pitches for strikes and stretched his postseason scoreless streak to 14 innings. Puk pitched a seven-inning shutout in a run-rule win against Arkansas in the SEC Tournament.
USF scored its first run in the eighth on an RBI double by Levi Borders off Gators reliever Kirby Snead. USF added its final run in the ninth.
Check back with GatorZone.com later for a more expanded report on tonight's game.
