Florida's offense stalls in 7-2 loss against FGCU

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Florida’s baseball team saw their four-game winning streak snapped on Wednesday after suffering a 7-2 loss at home against Florida Gulf Coast University.

The Gators put up 64 runs in the four matchups prior to this in-state battle, but could not keep up their offensive production in their second game against the Eagles.

Florida’s biggest problem during their second matchup with FGCU, however, was slowing down their opponent at the beginning of the game.

“Credit FGCU, they played good tonight,” Kevin O’Sullivan said. “They played really good defense, especially infield defense. They got a lot of ground balls. They played hard and played well enough to win.”

The top of the second inning started off with a single for the Eagles, which was followed by a walk in the next at-bat. Freshman pitcher David Luethje then surrendered a two-base hit that put UF in a 1-0 hole, and FGCU followed that with a sacrifice fly that doubled their advantage.

Even though Ben Specht replaced Luethje in the third inning, Florida’s pitching struggles continued against the Eagles. Along with walking three batters, Specht allowed a runner to advance on a wild pitch. A fielding error by third baseman Cory Acton gave FGCU a 3-0 lead.

Nick Pogue came in to replace Specht, but FGCU closed out the top of the third inning with a single and a walk that widened their lead to five runs.

While Kevin O’Sullivan’s group struggled in the pitching department, the offense established no momentum for a majority of the game.

“I got them together in the first inning, I could tell in the first inning [the energy was off],” said the Florida skipper. “That’s the thing that young players need to understand. We’re still worrying about what happened on Sunday against Winthrop, and then what happened last night. It’s over, we’ve got to move on. Good or bad, you’ve got to move on to the next day and I thought we carried the last three games into today.

“Once again, that was the message last night, not to get too far ahead of ourselves and I could tell in the first inning so I got them together. Usually that happens in the middle of the game. We just weren’t ready to go. That’s my fault, I guess, I just don’t understand. We go over the scouting report, take in and out, pretty much the same routine. It’s up to the players in the dugout to get into it but tonight it was dead. It was disappointing, but that’s why I addressed it there in the first inning.”

For the first six innings, the Gators recorded no hits and grounded out seven times. During this stretch, FGCU right-hander Evan Lumbert was having a perfect game and struck out six batters.

Florida’s bats did not wake up until the seventh inning, but the Eagles had already added the icing on the cake with two runs to put UF in a 7-0 deficit.

In the bottom of the seventh inning, however, Brady McConnell tried to spark a late charge for the Gators with a bunt single that drove home Jacob Young. Kendrick Calilao, who was named SEC Co-Freshman of the Week just over a week ago, singled to right field and scored McConnell after a groundout by Wil Dalton.

Despite Nelson Maldonado getting on base with a walk and Calilao advancing to second base, Florida could not put up any more runs on the board after having two outs to work with.

Even though Lumbert was replaced after giving up two runs, the Gators were able to get on base just one more time in the final two innings.

All in all, Florida finished the game with just four hits and struck out eight times, while the Eagles recorded nine hits on their way to tying the two-game series with the Gators.

UF, which is now 2-4 in midweek games, will host Yale for a three-game series starting on Friday. First pitch for the opening matchup is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.

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