It was a historic night for Florida ace Logan Shore (8-0, 2.14 ERA), as the junior earned a school-record 13th consecutive victory on the mound tonight. In addition to breaking a record previously set by Russ Kibler in the early 80s, Shore also threw his second complete game shutout of the season.
Allowing just two hits the whole night, Shore faced the minimum amount of 27 batters while striking out six and walking just one on 101 pitches thrown. He induced seven groundouts and 11 fly outs.
The Gator offense would give Shore a big lead to work with early as they scored five runs in the first two innings. Jonathan India had a team-high two RBI's after his first inning single scored both Deacon Liput and Peter Alonso to push the score to 3-0. It would be his only hit of the night as he finished 1-4.
JJ Schwarz continued to stay hot as he went 2-4 and almost connected for his fifth home run of the season. Schwarz also showed off his wheels tonight as he stole his second bag of the year. He was one of five Gators to swipe a base off of Georgia's pitching staff.
Of these five steals, the most memorable had to be Buddy Reed's in the bottom of the first inning. With the score 3-0 and two outs in the bottom of the first inning, Buddy Reed took off from third base as Bulldog pitcher Connor Jones delivered to the plate. Reed timed his jump perfectly and slid in just ahead of catcher Skyler Weber's tag to steal home and extend the Gator lead to 4-0.
Reed's risky decision was incredible and the perfect way to cap off a four-run inning. From there, the Gators would run with the momentum and never look back.
Final Takeaway:
The No. 2 Florida Gators are now back in a position to win the series after yet another dominating performance from Logan Shore. Before previewing the rubber match, here are my final tidbits on tonight's shutout victory:
- Besides Reed and Schwarz, the other three Gators with stolen bases were Dalton Guthrie (his seventh), Deacon Liput (his tenth), and Christian Hicks (his first of his collegiate career).
- Dalton Guthrie and Buddy Reed were the only other two Gators to drive in a run as Guthrie went 1-3 with an RBI and Reed went 1-4 with an RBI and a run scored.
- Six different players accounted for all the runs that the Orange and Blue scored tonight.
- Yet again, Christian Hicks walked in his only plate appearance of the game in the bottom of the seventh. It was his seventh free pass of the year.
- Ryan Larson (who is hitting .173 this season) actually got to start this game, but was a non-factor as he went 0-3 with a strikeout. He did have two putouts though, with one being a diving catch.
- Speaking of diving catches, Nelson Maldonado made a fine play in left field when he laid out for a ball in the top of the fourth.
With Logan Shore giving the bullpen a rest tonight, it will be all hands on deck tomorrow as the Gators go for their third straight series victory over Georgia. Toeing the mound for Florida will be another quality arm in sophomore right-hander Alex Faedo (7-1, 3.67 ERA). I again am clueless in regards to who Georgia will counter with.
Game time for the rubber match is set for 2 p.m. It can be seen on ESPN2 and heard on the Gator IMG Sports Network.
*All stats accredited to FloridaGators.com
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