Florida Falls to FGCU in Midweek

Wednesday, March 6

Gainesville, FL

6 PM

Florida Gators

10-5

FGCU

9-4

Florida Gulf Coast

Florida

Freshman Kris Armstrong tossed three innings out of the bullpen on Wednesday.

Florida Falls to FGCU in Midweek

Wednesday, March 6, 2019 | Baseball

Box Score

By: Daniel Apple

WHAT HAPPENED: Florida Gulf Coast used a strong start on the mound to beat Florida 7-2 on Wednesday night in Gainesville.

FGCU built an early 5-0 lead with a pair of runs in the second and three runs in the third. Florida's pitchers uncharacteristically walked six batters in the early innings that led to three of the Eagles' runs.

The game settled down in the middle innings before the Eagles added two more runs in the sixth and seventh for a 7-0 lead.

FGCU starting pitcher Evan Lumbert kept the Gators off the board until the bottom of the seventh. Jacob Young broke up Lumbert's bid for a perfect game with single up the middle.

After a bunt single by Brady McConnell, Lumbert threw the ball away and Young came around to score. A few batters later, Kendrick Calilao drove in McConnell to make it 7-2.

The Gators never managed to get any closer, however, as FGCU turned to reliever Hunter McGarry who finished the game with two scoreless innings.

Florida's Kirby McMullen and Kris Armstrong did a nice job to finish the game, combining for the final five innings with two runs allowed and only one walk between them.

FROM THE COACH: Head Coach Kevin O'Sullivan – On tonight's game: "Credit FGCU, they played good tonight. They played really good defense, especially infield defense. They got a lot of ground balls. They played hard and played well enough to win.

On the team's energy Wednesday: "I got them together in the first inning, I could tell in the first inning [the energy was off]. That's the thing that young players need to understand. We're still worrying about what happened on Sunday against Winthrop, and then what happened last night. It's over, we've got to move on. Good or bad, you've got to move on to the next day and I thought we carried the last three games into today. Once again, that was the message last night, not to get too far ahead of ourselves and I could tell in the first inning so I got them together. Usually that happens in the middle of the game. We just weren't ready to go. That's my fault, I guess, I just don't understand. We go over the scouting report, take in and out, pretty much the same routine. It's up to the players in the dugout to get into it but tonight it was dead. It was disappointing, but that's why I addressed it there in the first inning."

UP NEXT: Florida's homestand continues this weekend against Yale. The Gators host the Bulldogs for three games beginning Friday at 6:30 p.m. Saturday's game starts at 4 p.m. and Sunday's finale is at 1 p.m. The games will broadcast live on the Gator Sports Network.