WHAT HAPPENED: Florida head coach
Kevin O'Sullivan reached a career milestone on Sunday, picking up win No. 500 as the Gators swept Long Beach State in their season-opening series.
The Dirtbags took a 1-0 lead, but Florida scored three unanswered runs and kept LBSU off the board over the final seven innings for a 3-1 win. Florida has now swept its opening weekend opponents five years in a row dating back to 2015.
Long Beach State took its first lead of the series with a solo home run in the second inning from Aidan Malm.
Florida took the lead with a pair of runs in the third inning.
Jud Fabian drew a bases-loaded walk that tied the game and Roberto Peña's grounder to third was bobbled to bring home another run for a 2-1 lead.
The Gators added another run in the fourth after back-to-back doubles from
Santino Miozzi and
Brady McConnell.
Florida starter
Jack Leftwich gave up just one run as he scattered five hits over six innings. He had five strikeouts and no walks.
Hunter Ruth made his Gators debut and pitched two scoreless innings while
Nolan Crisp earned his second save in as many days.
Gallery
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Brady McConnell – After battling injury in 2018, sophomore
Brady McConnell is poised for a breakout year in 2019. A top prospect out of Merritt Island, Fla., McConnell led the team with five hits on the weekend while playing error-free baseball at shortstop.
STANDOUT STAT: 500 – Head coach
Kevin O'Sullivan notched his 500th career win. He is the fastest coach in UF history to reach the milestone, doing so in just 729 games for a remarkable .685 winning percentage.
FROM THE COACH: Head coach Kevin O'Sullivan on Sunday's pitching performance: "I thought [
Jack Leftwich] was good. His secondary stuff was really good and he had good command of his fastball. His changeup was outstanding, especially early in the game -- he went right-on-right changeups. He was good, other than the PFP play on the bunt. But he pitched himself out of that inning. He was really good.
"It was really good to get
Hunter Ruth out there too. He looked really sharp as well, and then Nolan there at the end gives up the leadoff double but then settles in. He made the one mistake on the changeup that went to the warning track, but he filled up the strike zone and didn't back off his stuff. It's pretty impressive for a young pitcher like that.
'[Ruth's] stuff was darting, he threw three pitches -- fastball was up to 94-95 it looked like. He threw 22 pitches in two innings; he was really efficient in the first and we just ran him back out there because he's got a really good arm. Sometimes you want to get a guy out there for one inning and make him feel good about himself and get him out, but the way he was commanding the ball I thought we needed to get him out there for another inning. He's going to be a big piece of this pitching staff for sure."
UP NEXT: Florida travels to Tampa on Tuesday for a 6:30 p.m. start at USF. On Wednesday, the Gators will host UNF at 6 p.m.
