LUBBOCK REGIONAL
Florida 13, Army 5

WHAT HAPPENED: Sophomore right-hander Jack Leftwich delivered exactly what the Gators needed on Saturday against Army, a strong outing to keep Florida's season alive. Leftwich retired the first 16 batters he faced in a 111-pitch outing that covered seven innings. Leftwich allowed only one hit and one run -- a solo homer to Josh White in the sixth -- while striking out seven with one walk. Leftwich, coming off a two-hit shutout at Missouri in his last start on May 17, had a scoreless streak of 14.1 innings until White's homer. Meanwhile, the offense continued to produce with 14 hits -- including four home runs -- and the defense did not commit an error.
 
PLAY OF THE GAME: Take your pick here. UF first baseman Kendrick Calilao connected for a two-run homer in the second inning to put the Gators in the lead for good. They continued to build the lead and when Austin Langworthy hit a two-run homer to deep right in the fourth that stretched the lead to 7-0 and chased Army starter Tyler Giovinco, the game felt over.
 
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Calilao had a productive day at the plate, going 3-for-3 with five RBIs. Calilao's home run in the second inning opened the scoring and he added an RBI single in the third and RBI sacrifice flies in the fourth and fifth innings. Prior to his two-run home run off Giovinco, Calilao had not gone deep since April 2.
 
STRANGE STAT: As much success as the Gators have had under head coach Kevin O'Sullivan in his 12 seasons, Saturday was the first road regional victory during O'Sullivan's stint in Gainesville. O'Sullivan had lost all five of his regional games away from McKethan Stadium -- two in Tallahassee in 2008, two in Bloomington, Ind., in 2013, and Friday's 11-8 setback to Dallas Baptist in the Lubbock Regional. In fact, Saturday's regional win was the first for the Gators on the road since they went 3-0 in 2004 in the Oklahoma City Regional. 
 
BONUS MOMENT: On the one-year anniversary of his first home run with the Gators, reserve catcher Jonah Girand hit his first home run of the 2019 season. Girand came off the bench to spell starter Brady Smith and in his first at-bat, he connected for a solo homer to extend Florida's lead to 12-1 in the seventh inning. Girand, playing in place of an injured JJ Schwarz in the 2018 Gainesville Regional, earned Most Outstanding Player honors in the regional by hitting three home runs.
 
BY THE NUMBERS: 28 -- Runs for the Gators over their last three games. They lost the first two but won Saturday behind Leftwich's stellar outing; 26 -- Games since Calilao had homered prior to his two-run shot Saturday.
 
FROM THE COACH: Head coach Kevin O'Sullivan – On today's game: "First of all, I want to congratulate Army on a great season. Jim and his staff did an incredible job getting to this point. I've known Jim for a long time and he just continues to win wherever he's at, so congratulations to them.

"As far as we're concerned, Jack gave us the start we needed. Got us deep in the ball game after having to go to the pen yesterday in the second. Got a lot of offensive production, we scored early, which I thought was important. Gave us a lot of momentum. Kendrick obviously had a big day at the plate with five RBIs and Wil had a good day. I thought Brady McConnell had a good day, even though he didn't get any hits. He hit the ball hard quite a few times. So all in all it was a very good day for us offensively, pitching-wise and defensively. So look forward to playing tomorrow."
 
On Jack Leftwich's performance: "I think it has to do with probably a combination of things. He's healthy, obviously the blister was something that we just couldn't control and it lingered for a long time. So when you take that much time off, obviously you get out of your rhythm, I think he's just starting to find his rhythm now. Obviously, he was one of our better guys at the end of the year. [Last year] he pitched in three elimination games in the regionals, supers and then obviously against Texas Tech in the World Series. So it's good to have him back to form, but it's just taken awhile because of the blister."

UP NEXT: The Gators (34-25) face the Dallas Baptist University-Texas Tech loser in an elimination game at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday. DBU and Texas Tech played following Florida's win over Army.