Advertisement
baseball Edit

Gators beat Missouri after near 3-hour rain delay

After a nearly three-hour rain delay, the No. 18 Florida Gators and Missouri Tigers got a chance to play some baseball and neither team wasted any more time getting on the scoreboard.

Jud Fabian opened the game with a violent home run to left field, the 111 exit velocity is tied for his hardest-hit ball of the season.

Missouri came right back and tied the game in the top of the third to tie the game. The Gators' offense came alive in the bottom of the third, hitting for the cycle in the inning as a team.

Jacob Young walked, stole second, and advanced to third on Nathan Hickey's single to. Kirby McMullen brought everyone home with a deep home run to left center.

Jud Fabian hit a one-out double down the left field line, as the hit parade continued on. Jordan Butler drove him home with a single and Kendrick Calilao's triple completed the cycle, and the scoring for the frame.

"That's pretty cool, honestly," McMullen said about the team hitting for the cycle in the third. "I didn't even know we did it but that's really cool."

Alemán continued to struggle, giving up more rebound runs

"We score six in the third, turn around and gave up four. That has been talked about over and over — giving up rebound runs," O'Sullivan said. "The dugout is all excited, Kirby hits the home run and the guys are into it. We have a great inning offensively and within 15 minutes all the momentum is lost in our dugout and with our team. The pitcher's responsibility is to go out and put up a zero on the board."

Florida has scored in 116 innings this year and has allowed the opponent to score in the following half inning 35 times. In other terms, when Florida scores a run they are giving it right back to the other team 30-percent of the time, and Kevin O'Sullivan wasn't happy about it.

Christian Scott replaced Alemán and continued to pitch hot. scott threw 5.2 scoreless innings to follow up his 4.2 scoreless in Knoxville last Saturday.

Florida and Missouri will likely play a double-header on Saturday to try and get the rest of the series in with more rain forecasted for Gainesville this weekend.


Advertisement