AUBURN, Ala.—Auburn won a pitching duel on Saturday afternoon, taking the series with a 2-1 win over Florida at Plainsman Park.
 
Both starting pitchers held the offenses in check and completed seven innings on the mound. Florida's Brady Singer allowed five hits and two runs while Auburn's Casey Mize surrendered one run on five UF hits.
 
Auburn opened the scoring in the third despite not recording a hit. Leadoff hitter Jonah Todd reached on a four-pitch walk and moved to second on a wild pitch. After a balk moved the runner to third with no outs, Singer battled back to get the next two batters.
 
Another balk call from the home plate umpire scored Todd from third for a 1-0 lead.
 
The Tigers made it 2-0 in the fourth with back-to-back doubles from Jay Estes and Luke Jarvis.
 
In the fifth, Florida loaded the bases with three-straight singles to start the inning but the Gators could not capitalize and Auburn escaped the jam unscathed.
 
The Gators finally got on the board in the seventh. Nelson Maldonado doubled to lead off the inning and UF loaded the bases with one out after a walk and a catcher's interference call. A sharply hit ball by Deacon Liput led to a double play, but Maldonado came in to score before the second out was recorded.
 
Andrew Baker worked one scoreless inning in relief on the mound for Florida with a pair of strikeouts.
 
Offensively, the trio of Maldonado, Christian Hicks and Ryan Larson, hitting 5-6-7 spots in the order, combined for all five of UF's hits on the afternoon. Maldonado and Hicks had two hits apiece.
 
Sunday's finale is scheduled for 2 p.m. ET at Plainsman Park. The game will air live on SEC Network+ and on the Gators IMG Sports Network.
 
 
POSTGAME QUOTES
Head Coach Kevin O'Sullivan
"They're pitcher was very good, so was Brady. Two guys going on Saturday, both throwing 95 and had good command of their secondary. It was a really good pitchers duel, but we did have our opportunities. We had the bases loaded there in the fifth with nobody out and we had three consecutive two-strike at bats. We've been talking about that, with runners in scoring position, we can't get to two strikes. Unfortunately that was an inning where we had an opportunity to score and the three at bats were not very good. Overall, the at bats were a little bit better today, a little more competitive, against a really good arm. We'll come back tomorrow and get one and head back to Gainesville."
 
On Singer's performance:
"He pitched really good today. He threw the ball on both sides of the plate, had a good slider going, threw a couple really quality changeups. He certainly gave us a chance to win."
 
On the team bouncing back from Friday's loss:
"The effort was much better today. I thought they were into it the whole game. When you face a pitcher like Mize, and he's throwing the ball as well as he was, when you have your opportunities you have to have quality at bats. Hopefully we'll learn from that."