The Gator baseball team opened the 2019 season with a sweep.

After taking the first two games of the series against Long Beach State, Florida defeated LBSU 3-1 Sunday to take all three games of the series.

Sophomore Jack Leftwich was dominant on the mound for Florida. The tall, right-handed pitcher went six innings, allowing only one run on a second inning home run. After that, he was lights out. Leftwich struck out five batters and didn’t allow any walks in the win.

“I think I only had one three ball count the whole game, so I felt really good with my command and everything,” Leftwich said

“I thought he was good,” head coach Kevin O’Sullivan said of Leftwich. “I thought his secondary stuff was really good, he had good command of his fastball and his change-up was outstanding.”

The victory also marked O’Sullivan’s 500th career win in his time at the University of Florida.

Offensively, Florida was paced by Brady McConnell. The sophomore had three hits, including an RBI double in the fourth that made it 3-1.

“I’m just trying to stay as relaxed as possible and just hit the ball with hard contact,” McConnell said.

However, Florida found themselves in an early hole.

Long Beach State took an early 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning when right fielder Aidan Malm took a Leftwich fastball for a ride over the left-field wall. It was the first home run of the series for either team.

After that though, it was all Leftwich and the Gators.

Florida pushed across two runs in the third inning to take the lead. With the bases loaded and two outs, Jud Fabian worked a full count and was able to draw walk. That allowed McConnell to score from third, who singled earlier in the inning, to tie the game.

Freshman third baseman Robert Pena followed that up by hitting a hard groundball right at Dirtbags third baseman Tanner Carlson. The ball went off Carlson’s glove and allowed Nelson Maldonado to score from third and make it 2-1.

Florida would take on an insurance run in the fourth when McConnell doubled to left-field that allowed Santino Miozzi to score.

There was a scare for Gator second baseman Blake Reese in the sixth inning after he dove for a ground ball and appeared to injure his shoulder. He exited the game and was replaced by Cory Acton.

“We’ll probably give him off Tuesday, Wednesday and probably get him back for the weekend against Miami,” O’Sullivan said. “His shoulder came out and it comes back in so he’s going to be sore for the next couple days, it’s just a matter of pain tolerance and it’s not something that will keep him out for a while I don’t think.”

Long Beach State threatened to get back into the game in the eighth inning. Pinch hitter Conner Kokx led off the inning with a single and was able to get to third on back-to-back ground outs.

Gator relief pitcher Hunter Ruth was able to get out of the jam though. The redshirt freshman got Malm to ground out to McConnell at short to end the inning and preserve the two-run lead.

The Gators had to fight off a ninth inning rally as well from the Dirtbags. Calvin Estrada lead off the inning with a double to left-center and moved to third on Tyler Porter’s sacrifice fly.

However, closer Nolan Crisp escaped the jam, getting Santino Rivera to ground out to Robert Pena at third to end the ball game.

“At the end of the year these games we don’t feel like may matter right now are gonna matter at the end of the year so definitely sweeping a team like this is important,” McConnell said.

The Gators finished with six hits over eight innings and drew four walks as well. Pena, Reese and Miozzi all had hits to go along with McConnell’s three.

Florida will return to action on Tuesday when the team travels to Tampa to battle South Florida.

O’Sullivan says Hunter McMullen will get the start.