UNF Homers Past Florida 7-1

Wednesday, February 20

Gainesville, FL

6 PM

Florida Gators

North Florida

Freshman David Luethje retired all nine batters he faced on Wednesday against UNF.

UNF Homers Past Florida 7-1

Wednesday, February 20, 2019 | Baseball

Box Score

By: Daniel Apple

WHAT HAPPENED: UNF launched a trio of home runs on Wednesday to beat Florida 7-1 in Gainesville.

The Gators used four true freshmen on the mound and they performed well for the most part. The longshots by UNF proved to be the deciding factor.

Meanwhile, the Ospreys used six different pitchers to keep Florida off balance at the plate. UNF kept the Gators bats' quiet through the first four innings, limiting UF to just one hit, before Florida managed to scatter seven hits over the final five innings.

UNF took an early 3-0 lead through the first three innings. In the first, The Ospreys loaded the bases and picked up a run on Jay Prather's RBI single.

A solo home run from Tanner May in the second inning made it 2-0 and Tanner Murphy added a homer in the third to extend the lead.

Florida put together a rally in the sixth inning, stringing together singles from Nelson Maldonado and Wil Dalton to create a scoring opportunity. A sac fly from Cory Acton brought in the Gators lone run of the night.

A three-run home run in the ninth inning from Chris Berry put the game away for UNF.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Freshman RHP David Luethje – It's hard to imagine a better collegiate debut than what Luethje did on Wednesday. He took the mound in the fifth and proceeded to retire all nine batters he faced over three scoreless innings.

STANDOUT STAT: 15 – The Gators have had 15 players make their collegiate debut through the first five games: 11 true freshmen, three junior college transfers and one redshirt freshman.

FROM THE DUGOUT: Head coach Kevin O'Sullivan on Wednesday's game: "The thing that has been hurting us is just some mistakes that we normally were not making coming into the season … I knew going into the year that some of the freshmen, it's normal to kind of struggle a little because the game speeds up on them. The thing that has surprised me is the older guys that have come out of the gates slow. At the end of the day, it's the early part of the season and we've got to put this one behind us and have a good practice tomorrow. We've got a quick turnaround with Miami coming in this weekend."

O'Sullivan on freshman RHP David Luethje: "I thought he was great. I think he threw three pitches for strikes, he kept his pitch count down, kept the defense engaged and we played really good defense behind him. Usually when some of those crooked numbers get put on the board there are usually deep counts and walks involved and balls get hit hard, or teams make defensive mistakes. But I thought [David] was very, very efficient. He located really well. For his first outing I thought he was outstanding."

Senior OF Nelson Maldonado on the early struggles: "I don't want to use the excuse that we're young. I feel like each and every one of these players are ready to play at this level. It's evident that we're struggling right now. We're just looking for that moment that it clicks."

UP NEXT: This weekend, Florida hosts in-state rival Miami in a three-game series at McKethan Stadium. Friday and Saturday's games will start at 6:30 p.m. The series finale on Sunday begins at 1 p.m.