After only managing two hits against USF the day before, the Gator bats continued to struggle at the plate against UNF.

Florida fell into an early hole at home against the Ospreys and fell 7-1 in the teams second game in two days.

“I don’t’ want to use the excuse that we’re young, I feel like each and everyone of these players is ready to play at this level,” senior captain Nelson Maldonado said. “We just didn’t come out ready to play.”

The Gators managed eight hits against six UNF pitchers but only managed a single run.

Florida also struck out seven times.

“The things that have been hurting us is some mistakes we were not making coming into the season,” head coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “The thing that’s been surprising is we’ve got some older guys that have come out the gates pretty slow.”

Freshman Christian Scott was given the start for Florida and only lasted two innings. The right-handed pitcher threw 25 of his 37 pitches for strikes, but the UNF hitters put lots of balls in play.

In the first inning, an errant throw by shortstop Brady McConnell on a Wes Weeks ground ball and a fielding error by second baseman Christian Flint allowed base runners for the Ospreys. That eventually lead to Jay Prather driving in a run, making it 1-0.

The Ospreys would tack on another run in the top of the second inning when Tanner May took a 2-1 pitch for a ride over the left-field bleachers.

Scott was pulled following the inning, finishing with four hits allowed and three strike outs along with the two earned runs.

His replacement, Ben Specht, was met with a rude greeting from UNF slugger Tanner Murphy to start the third inning. Murphy sent a ball to the exact same spot that May did in the previous inning for the Ospreys second homerun of the game. That made it 3-0.

Specht would settle in after that and allow only one hit in the remainder of his outing. He ended up going two full innings and kept the deficit at three runs.

The Gator pitching would continue to keep the Ospreys off the board for the next four innings. The combination of freshman David Luethje and Nick Pogue would not allow a base hit and only one base runner total.

However, Pogue would allow the final four runs of the game to UNF in the ninth inning. After a Tanner Clark single scored Alex Reynolds to make it 4-1, the Ospreys really opened it up. With runners on first and second, Chris Berry sent a three-run homerun off the scoreboard in right field to balloon the lead to 7-1.

The Gator bats struggled equally as much as the pitching did.

The Gators had an excellent opportunity to put runs on the board in the fifth inning after back-to-back singles by Santino Miozzi and Austin Langworthy with two outs. The chance was spoiled when Brady McConnell struck out to end the inning.

Florida managed a run in the sixth to cut into the deficit. Nelson Maldonado lead off the inning with an infield single that was followed up by Wil Dalton hitting a line drive to right field. Maldonado would get to third, putting runners on the corners.

The Gators would push through on the next at bat when Cory Acton hit a sacrifice-fly to left field that allowed Maldonado to tag up and score.

It looked like the rally might continue after pinch-hitter Kendrick Calilao singled up the middle with Dalton on base and two outs, but fellow pinch hitter Brady Smith struck out to end the inning.

That would be about all the Gator offense would manage the rest of the game, as the team combined for two base hits over the final three innings.

“One small hit, or one small square-up on the bat can change your whole perspective at the plate,” Maldonado said.

Santino Miozzi had the best night at the plate for Florida. The junior college transfer went 2-2 and was hit by a pitch as well.

For UNF, they finished with nine base hits. Berry, Tanner May and Clark each had two base hits each and combined to drive in five runs for the Ospreys.

“This isn’t uncharted territory for us, we’ve had young players here before and we’ve had success, so they’ve just got to figure it out, it’s that simple,” O’Sullivan said.

The Gators will host Miami this coming weekend in a three-game series. First pitch Friday is at 6:30pm.