Florida dispatched FSU with a sharpness that was missing over the weekend

Following their near sweep against High Point, Florida was punished in the polls and dropped to 23rd in the D1 Baseball rankings this week. The fall was harsh considering Florida had previously been on a 13-game winning streak, but the Gators looked far from a top 25 team over the weekend.

The best cure for a sloppy weekend is a solid win over your rival, and on Tuesday night, the Gators punched back and took care of FSU while looking far sharper in the process.

Florida beats FSU 6-3 in game one of their annual meetings

The Gators fell behind 2-0 in the 2nd inning, but punched back in the 3rd with a five-run inning. The Gators pieced the inning together on nothing but walks and singles, racking up five hits and three walks. Jacob Kendall’s two-run RBI was the one that really broke things open and gave Florida a 5-2 lead.

FSU got one back in the 4th, but Florida got some insurance in the 6th off a Brendan Lawson solo home run to make it 6-3. It’s Lawson’s 9th home run of the season.

But the real key for Florida was the back end of its bullpen. Jackson Barberi entered in the 6th inning and eventually got to a point where he was able to just blow fastballs by FSU, no matter where they were placed. Barberi had a couple of fastballs in the top 100 MPH. Ernesto Lugocanchola entered in the 8th and gave up a couple of hits, though one of those was a bloop to left field that still should have been caught. From there, Joshua Whritenour struck out all five batters he faced to close the door on FSU.

Altogether, Florida pitchers struck out 18 FSU batters on the night.

And besides the awkward play in the 8th inning, the biggest key for Florida is that everything felt cleaner compared to their weekend series loss to High Point. Gator batters were also more patient at the plate, and despite striking out nine times, they also walked nine times. Every Florida batter reached base at least once.

Beating FSU is par for the course at this point. Kevin O’Sullivan is 38-23 against the Seminoles since arriving in Gainesville. 

Afterwards, O’Sullivan noted how Tuesday’s matchup was just what the Gators needed:

“They're going to have to grow up in a hurry, because now we have SEC play, too. We also turn around and play Stetson next Tuesday, who just split with Arkansas at Arkansas. Everybody's starting to play a little bit better. 

I was just glad that we flushed this weekend. Probably the best thing that could have happened was us playing Florida State. It was certainly going to bring emotions to another level, and we are going to have to play really clean to beat teams like Florida State. The bounce-back win was probably the best thing we needed playing Florida State to get us going again."

Florida opens SEC play this weekend against South Carolina.