WHAT HAPPENED: No. 4 Arkansas took the series opener over No. 2 Florida 6-3 on Friday night at McKethan Stadium.
After a scoreless first inning, Arkansas used a bunt single to get the offense going in the second. Heston Kjerstad doubled off the wall to score the game's first run.
With two outs, Carson Shaddy lined a ball off UF starter Brady Singer's leg that ricocheted into right field and brought in two more runs to make it 3-0.
Arkansas added another pair of runs in the fourth on a sac fly and solo home run from Dominic Fletcher to make it 5-0.
Florida got on the board in the bottom of the inning. After Jonathan India drew a leadoff walk, Deacon Liput hit his first home run of the season to cut the deficit to three.
A solo home run in the sixth inning from Kjerstad extended the Razorbacks lead to 6-2.
Singer's night ended after seven innings and six runs allowed on seven hits.
Wil Dalton hit his 10th home run of the season in the seventh inning for the final margin.
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Deacon Liput – Dating back to Wednesday's game, Liput had a stretch of six-straight at bats with a hit. He went 4-for-4 against Jacksonville and started 2-for-2 tonight with a single and a home run.
STANDOUT STAT: 10 –
Wil Dalton hit his 10th home run of the season in just the 24th game. Last year,
JJ Schwarz led the team with 12 home runs the entire year (71 games)
FROM THE COACH: Head coach
Kevin O'Sullivan on tonight's game: "I thought their starter [Blaine Knight] did a nice job, he struck out 10 over 6.2 innings. Overall we struck out 14 times. Credit their starter, we had an opportunity there in the second after they took the lead. The big at bat there was the walk to [Jordan] McFarland, we had him down 0-2 and ended up walking him with one out then they get the big hit up the middle off of Brady's leg with two outs. Then we had our opportunity in the second to get right back in it with the bases loaded and one out and we hit a popup on the infield. That was probably the one real crack we had against their starter.
"We hung in there. We were one hitter away from getting the tying run to the plate there in the ninth inning. Credit Arkansas, they played really well tonight."
UP NEXT: The Gators and Razorbacks continue the weekend series with a game Saturday at noon on ESPN2. Sunday's finale is at noon on SEC Network.
