WHAT HAPPENED:Â No. 24 Tennessee used a four-run seventh inning to come-from-behind and beat Florida 5-4 on Sunday afternoon to take the series in Gainesville.
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Back-to-back home runs from
Brady McConnell and
Austin Langworthy put Florida ahead 4-1 in the fifth inning. In the seventh, the Vols tied the game on a three-run homer from Ricky Martinez. A RBI groundout scored Connor Pavolony and proved to be the winning run.
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Freshman
Nick Pogue, making his second start of the week, was outstanding once again for the Gators. He allowed just one hit and one run in 5.1 innings on Sunday, just five days after tossing five shutout innings against USF in his first career start.
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Tennessee opened the scoring in the second inning on a solo home run from Evan Russell. Florida tied it in the third as
Jud Fabian scored on McConnell's RBI groundout.
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In the fifth inning, Fabian drove in the go-ahead run with a single to left field and the pair of home runs put the Gators ahead 4-1.
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IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Nick Pogue – The freshman made two starts and pitched 10.1 innings this week with just one run allowed on three hits. He entered last week with a 5.28 earned run average and lowered it to 3.51 over the course of his two outings.
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STANDOUT STAT: 15 – Brady McConnell's 15 home runs is a new UF single-season record by a shortstop. He surpassed the 14 hit by Mark Ellis in 1998.
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FROM THE COACH: Head Coach Kevin O'Sullivan – On today's game: "I'm disappointed that our three seniors have to go out without winning their [last home game]. We're in a difficult position; we've never really been in this position before. But it's kind of the same thing again, we gave up a big inning, gave up four runs … ran some deep counts again, 2-0 counts, full counts. Yesterday we were in offensive counts too. We've got to do a better job of throwing two of the first three pitches for strikes live we've always preached. Obviously we've got to do a better job on the mound, it's that simple."
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On Nick Pogue: "He did good, really good. He did everything we could have asked of him. He went further than our other two starters Friday and Saturday, got us into the sixth inning. He had a really good week. Hopefully he's making some strides forward, which I really think he is."
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On giving up four runs in the seventh inning: "Limit the big inning, we keep talking about the same thing over and over. Really it just boils down to a couple pitches here and there. The whole mentality has got to be if you give up a run in an inning, battle like heck to not give up a second. If you give up two, battle like heck not to give up a third one. That's the mentality you have to have. When things have gotten away from us in innings, instead of throwing more strikes we've thrown less strikes and been in offensive counts and the damage has been done. There's nothing more to it."
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UP NEXT: Florida travels to Missouri next weekend to wrap up the regular season. Thursday's opener is set for 7:30 p.m. ET in Columbia, Mo.
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