Tuesday, May 3, 2016

UF Baseball: #1 Florida Handles Bethune-Cookman

The No. 1 Florida Gators (38-7) defeated the Bethune-Cookman Wildcats (23-23) by a score of 7-1 in tonight's contest at the Mac.

Scott Moss (1-0, 0.87 ERA) got the start tonight and was brilliant as he won his second game of the season. In three innings of work, he allowed no hits, struck out two, and walked one.

After Moss's departure, Frank Rubio entered and gave up what would be the only two hits and run of the evening. He worked two innings and fanned one batter.

Once Frank left, the rest of the bullpen combined for four no-hit innings of relief. Brady Singer came in and struck out two batters in two innings. Kirby Snead then followed and struck out one in 0.2 innings.

Dane Dunning entered with two outs in the eighth to record the inning's final out and Shaun Anderson closed it out in the ninth while also fanning one batter.

Offensively, the Gators did the bulk of their scoring at the beginning of the game as they put up a five-spot in the second inning. Nelson Maldonado and Peter Alonso highlighted the inning as Nelly hit a three-run home run and Alonso hit a two-run double. These would be their only hits and RBI's in the game as well as Maldonado's fifth home run of the season.

Joining Maldonado in the home run parade was sophomore JJ Schwarz, who hit a solo bomb to left field in the bottom of the sixth inning. He finished the night 2-3 with his sixth long ball of the season, two RBI's, two runs scored, and a walk. He was also the only Gator punch out of the night.

Schwarz was one of three Gators with multiple hits tonight. Right ahead of him, Buddy Reed went 2-4 with two runs scored. Moving all the way down to the seven-hole, Mike Rivera was 2-4 as well with a double and a run scored.

The only other Gator with a base knock was Jeremy Vasquez, who went 1-3 with a double and a run scored.

Final Takeaway:
No. 1 Florida is now 16-1 against in-state opponents after their victory against Bethune-Cookman tonight. I actually have no tidbits for this game, so I am going to now preview the upcoming series against the Tennessee Volunteers (24-21, 6-15 in SEC play).

Tennessee sits at the very bottom of the SEC standings as the worst team in the conference. Getting at least two wins in Knoxville should be doable, though a sweep would be much more preferred.

The weekend rotation will be as follows: Logan Shore on Friday night, A.J. Puk on Saturday afternoon, and Alex Faedo on Sunday afternoon.

All the games can be seen on the SEC Network and heard on the Gator IMG Sports Network.

*All stats accredited to FloridaGators.com

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