For six innings, Florida Baseball was having issues at the plate, but a standout performance from freshman Aidan King on the mound allowed the Gators to hang around with undefeated Tennessee.
Then King reached his limit in the 7th inning, and everything that could go wrong did go wrong as the Gators gave up nine runs in the 7th inning to get run-ruled 10-0 and fall to 16-4 on the season.
Florida Baseball: Power Outage
King has nothing to be ashamed of as the freshman went six innings and gave up just four hits and one walk while striking out six. The lone run he got tagged for was a second-inning RBI single.
But King got zero run support, and by zero, literally zero. The inconsistent strike zone didn't help, but the Gators had zero answers for Tennessee pitcher Marcus Phillips, who went seven innings off 110 pitches.
Only twice did Florida get a runner to second, and the only threat Florida had to score was in the 1st inning when Colby Shelton got thrown out at home by a mile.
Florida finished with seven strikeouts against just one walk.
But despite the power outage, it was still a 1-0 game heading into the bottom of the 7th when the wheels on the bus drove straight off the Smoky Mountains.
Jackson Barberi entered, and he was tagged for five runs while getting just one guy out. Matthew Jenkins and Caden McDonald followed, but neither of them got anyone out.
The pain and suffering finally ended when Reese Chapman sent a three-run home run over the right field fence to end the game with a 10-0 run rule.
Florida will be back at it today to try and salvage a win in the series and give Tennessee their first loss. Jake Clemente is slated to get the start after missing last week.