Coming into Knoxville, Florida Baseball knew it was about to have the difficulty level of its season ramp up exponentially. The Gators entered ranked 7th in the country, but until its game against FSU earlier in the week, Florida had yet to face a ranked opponent of their own.
For the most part, Florida was able to match Tennessee blow for blow in game one of their series. But a couple of bad breaks in the back half of the game ultimately sank Florida to a 5-3 defeat.
Florida Baseball: Upon Further Review
Liam Peterson got the start, and he kept Tennessee at bay for four innings. The Volunteers got a run in the 2nd inning, but Peterson locked in for an easy 3rd and 4th inning.
Florida's bats looked lost in the first two innings, But they started to put some more competitive bats together in the third inning. Blake Cyr tied the game in the fourth inning with a solo shot to left field.
Peterson ran into trouble in the fifth inning, and after loading the bases with no out, a double to score two runs ended his night. Luke McNeillie got two strikeouts and looked like he would escape the jam with no further damage until a wild pitch brought home another run to make it 4-1.
Florida was able to run the pitch count up on Tennessee starter Liam Doyle and had him out after 4.2 innings despite just one run. It was in the sixth inning the Gators went to work but also suffered a brutal break.
The Gators loaded the bases and a Brody Donay single scored two to claw back to 4-3. Then, with one out and bases loaded, Landon Stripling hit a slow roller up the middle. Tennessee stepped on 2nd but had zero chance of turning two and it looked like Florida had tied the game.
Except Luke Heyman was called for interference sliding into 2nd, and a double play was awarded to end the inning at 4-3.
The Volunteers tacked on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the sixth and Florida never got another man in scoring position to end the game.
Florida falls to 16-3 while Tennessee remains the lone unbeaten team in America at 18-0. Game two is scheduled for today at 3:30, though pending weather could have an impact.