Florida Gators

WHAT HAPPENED: No. 18 Ole Miss defeated Florida 12-4 on Friday night in the series opener in Oxford.
 
Florida took a 2-0 lead in the third inning with a two-out, two-run single from Brady McConnell. The Rebels answered in the bottom half with a pair of homers to take a 3-2 lead.
 
Ole Miss added four runs in the fourth. Three straight singles brought in one run before Cooper Johnson's two-run single made it 7-2.
 
The Gators got a pair back in the fifth on two solo home runs. Brady Smith hit a shot to left center, his third of the year, and McConnell hit his team-best sixth home run of the year to cut the deficit to 7-4.
 
Ole Miss blew it open in the late innings. They scored a pair of runs on two hits in the seventh and Johnson made it 12-4 with a three-run homer in the eighth.
 
FROM THE COACH: Head Coach Kevin O'Sullivan – On tonight's game: "I thought the mindset of our team was good to start the game, scored a couple runs there. Bracy McConnell had a really good day at the plate, had a big two-strike, two-out hit the other way – actually had two hits the other way – and had a home run. As a whole, we played really good defense. But unfortunately we didn't get a very good start on the mound, some balls found the middle of the plate.
 
"The theme that we've been going through the whole year is we've been giving up rebound runs. I think it's 22 times this year when our offense has scored our pitcher has gone out there and given up runs after we've scored so we lose momentum there. With a 2-0 lead everybody's feeling good about themselves, then five pitches into the inning we're down a run … credit the Ole Miss hitters, they did a nice job tonight. They had to go to the bullpen early and Myers did a nice job when he came in.
 
"It's hard when you've got a lead and then give it up early, especially on the road on a Friday night, when you get the momentum – I felt like the dugout was in a good place and we were playing with some confidence, then we lost the lead and it took the wind out of our sails a little bit."
 
UP NEXT: Florida and Ole Miss will wrap up the series with a doubleheader on Saturday at 1 p.m. Both games will air on SEC Network+ and the Gators Sports Network.