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It's rare for the Florida Gators baseball program to have a fifth-year senior on its roster but Kevin O'Sullivan and the Gators are sure happy to have Kirby McMullen back in Gainesville this season.
McMullen capped off his week with a 2-4 day Sunday, including a home run, his third of the weekend and fourth of the week to help the Gators clinch a series win over Jacksonville, 5-2.
"It's a great story because he kind of waited his turn. He's always been a great teammate, not a good teammate, a great teammate," O'Sullivan said of McMullen. "Obviously his hard work is paying off now."
McMullen and the Gators' offense got to work quickly to give starting pitcher Hunter Barco run support. Jacob Young led the game off with a double, the first of two extra base hits he would have on the afternoon. Nathan Hickey singled to shortstop and a throwing error allowed Young to score and HIckey to advance to second, where he was soon plated by a McMullen single to center field.
Barco took the two runs and ran with it. The second-year left-hander continued building on his past two starts and struck out four of the first seven batters he faced. Barco ran into trouble in the third, however.
Two one-out singles and a hit batter loaded the bases for the Dolphins and Barco, who had been lights out, allowed two runs to score to tie the game before striking out Christian Coipel to get out of the inning.
That's all that Barco would surrender Sunday. He lasted 6.1 innings, striking out seven batters and scattered six hits.
"His numbers don't really indicate how well he's throwing," O'Sullivan said after the game. "Today was probably his best start. I thought he was really sharp and other than botching the bunt play and the four-pitch walk to start the sixth after we scored a couple."
Those runs O'Sullivan mentioned came off of a Nathan Hickey sacrifice fly and McMullen's fourth home run of the week. Jordan Butler added an insurance run in the eighth inning with his first home run of the season and Franco Aleman relieved Barco, earning the save over 2.2 innings of work.
The No. 5 Gators improved to 13-4 on the season and will have a big week ahead of them. After 13-consecutive home games, the team will travel to Tallahassee on Tuesday night to face Florida State. It is the first of two matchups with the Noles this season. Next weekend marks the beginning of SEC play and Florida will host Texas A&M for a three-game weekend series beginning on Thursday night. The Aggies got off to a rough start, going 1-3 to start the year, but have bounced back to a 14-4 record.
