GAINESVILLE, Fla.—Florida used a trio of home runs and a strong start from Jackson Kowar on the mound to sweep its opening weekend against William and Mary with an 11-6 win on Sunday.
 
Kowar racked up 10 strikeouts in 5.2 innings with one earned run allowed in his season debut. Freshmen Keenan Bell and Austin Langworthy and sophomore Deacon Liput each sent balls over the right field wall to power the offense on Sunday.
 
Dalton Guthrie led off the bottom of the first with a double to left center and moved to third on a fly ball to center field off the bat of Deacon Liput. Jonathan India's fly ball to the left field warning track scored Guthrie from third to give the Gators a 1-0 lead.
 
After Kowar escaped a jam in the top half of the second, Mike Rivera led off the bottom half with a single to left. Langworthy then stepped the plate and powered his first career home run to right field. Singles from Bell and Christian Hicks kept the rally going and a RBI grounder from Guthrie made it 4-0.
 
The Gators blew the game open minutes later courtesy of Liput, whose three-run homer landed somewhere across Stadium Drive in right field to push the lead to 7-0.
 
Florida added a pair of runs in the fourth inning after Rivera singled home Guthrie and India to give UF a 9-0 advantage.
 
William and Mary took advantage of a few Florida miscues in the sixth, scoring one run on a double by Cullen Large and getting two more via wild pitches.
 
Bell hit a two run homer in the seventh and William and Mary scored three runs in the eighth for the final margin.
 
On the mound, a quartet of freshmen pitched in relief to finish off the game. Andrew Baker pitched 1.1 scoreless innings, Nate Brown allowed three runs in one inning of work and Tyler Dyson and Nick Long combined for a scoreless ninth.
 
Florida hits the road on Tuesday for a 6 p.m. game at Jacksonville and returns to McKethan Stadium on Wednesday to face the Dolphins at 6:30 p.m.
 
 
POST GAME QUOTES
Head Coach Kevin O'Sullivan
"I thought we got better as the weekend went on. I thought Jackson's start there in the sixth was really, really good. He just got a little tired there in the sixth, I wanted him to get to 80-85 pitches. But I thought he was good.
 
"It was good to get Baker back out there and he did his job. Nate Brown, he's a really good pitcher and is going to be really good for us this year – it was just his first outing. And the two freshmen at the end, you see they type of arms that we have, the young freshmen. They've got to get a little bit better finding command but obviously their ability is there.
 
"Swinging the bat, you guys just talked to Austin Langworthy, he's a heck of a baseball player. He does a lot of things right on the field. Knows how to run the bases, really good defensively and he's a really, really polished hitter and you saw him pitch on Saturday. He's extremely valuable.
 
"Keenan Bell had a chance to start in right and pulled his hands in on a ball and hit a home run. Deacon stayed in on a changeup, which was really good, and Dalton got a couple more hits. Offensively I thought we were very good as the weekend went on.
 
"I thought our pitching was okay. It'll be better as we go on. You got a chance to see the talent that we have. I've very, very optimistic about our bullpen. It's going to be good, it's just a matter of when those guys have the light come on and it clicks for them.
 
"It was exciting. The most important thing is that we got better as the weekend went on. We had a chance to move some guys around defensively to build some depth so there was a lot to take away it from today."