Saturdays are for the buys and Jud Fabian. The Florida Gators center fielder hit a pair of home runs Saturday night in a 9-2 win over Georgia, giving him his third-consecutive two-home run game on a Saturday.
"After the second one, someone told me that it was the last three Saturdays with two homers," Fabian said. "I just said let's just wear blue (Florida's Saturday jersey) every game."
The Gators have been on a tear since dropping the first two games against the Tennessee Volunteers. At that point, Florida was 5-6 in league play and trending poorly. The Sunday game watched Florida come back, show some life and was a real turning point for the 2021 ballclub.
"The Tennessee game was a little chippy," Fabian said. "I think that just lit a fire under us and we've been playing with a little bit of an edge ever since that Sunday Tennessee game. We've been playing some really good baseball as of late and we don't plan on stopping soon."
The Gators are 15-4 since that Sunday win at Tennessee and 12-3 in SEC play, including a series win over Vanderbilt. The series win is also Florida's eighth consecutive home series win of the season.
The Gators sent Hunter Barco to the mound on a Saturday for the first time this season and the second-year freshman responded. Barco sat 92-94 MPH in a clean first inning with two strikeouts. He got touched up in the second inning, however.
Barco walked Corey Collins and Georgia catcher Fernando Gonzalez doubled to kick things off. Both runners moved up 90 feet on a wild pitch, plating Collins and putting Gonzalez 90 feet away from home, which he touched one batter later when Randon Jernigan singled.
That would be all that Barco would surrender Saturday night and the offense picked him up in the bottom half of the inning. Jacob Young singled with two outs to plate Kendrick Calilao and Josh Rivera, tying the game.
Fabian and Calilao combined for two solo homers in the third inning, to give the Gators a 4-2 lead.
Fabian made it 5-2 with his second home run on the first pitch of the fifth inning. The home run was Jud's 20th of the season, tying Matt LaPorta's 2007 season and sixth-most in a single season for Florida.
