Florida Baseball: Cade Fisher has bounce back night as Gators win third straight game

Give the nature of college baseball, it shouldn't have sounded any alarm bells when Florida Baseball dropped its opening contest against St. John's. But also given the nature of college baseball fan bases, alarm bells went off after Cade Fisher was shelled on the mound.

So just like one bad start doesn't define a season, one good start won't either. But for Fisher, and Gator fans, it was a good sign to see him bounce back and overpower Columbia on Friday night.

Florida Baseball: Gone Fishing

After coming out of the bullpen all of last season, Fisher has been moved into a starting role for the 2024 season. Last night Columbia offered minimal resistance as Fisher was able to mow down 10 batters in five innings of work while walking none.

Among the ten other batters he faced, five got a hit while four flew out and one grounded out. After 86 pitches, Fisher left the game with the Gators up 10-2.

It was a huge first inning that made it seem like it would be an easy night for Florida as the first nine came before Florida even had a second out in the game. Ty Evans tripled and Brody Donay homered as the conga line of Gators kept rounding the base paths.

But as Florida was prone to early last season, the bullpen didn't shut the door and Columbia did get with a distance to make things uncomfortable. After a double in the top of the 7th, Columbia cut the lead to 10-6.

Kevin O'Sullivan was done messing around and brought in Ryan Slater to shut things down. Slater struck out four of the five batters he faced and by the time Luke Heyman hit a two run home run in the eigth inning the Gators had quelled the rally and went on to win 15-6.

The Gators are now 3-1 on the season and have two more games this weekend lined up against Columbia.