GAINESVILLE, Fla. – After dropping Friday’s series opener amidst a three-game losing streak, the Gators turned things around Saturday and Sunday to defeat the Hurricanes and take the series Sunday with a 4-1 victory.
Sophomore Jack Leftwich earned the victory behind a five-inning, 95-pitch performance that saw seven strikeouts, five hits, and one earned run.
The Gators found success early in this game behind a Kendrick Calilao single to left field to drive in Austin Langworthy from second, and it wouldn’t be the last time Calilao did damage to the Canes defense.
After that though, defense would take over on both sides.
The next two innings were scoreless as only one hit was allowed between the two squads. Adrian Del Castillo would end that with a solo homer in the top of the fourth on a fastball to even things up.
Miami wouldn’t stop there in the fourth. Raymond Gil, Luis Tuero and Michael Amditis would all hit singles to load the bases with two outs.
The Hurricanes looked like they were about to break the game open, but Leftwich locked down and struck out Jordan Lala to end the inning and leave three runners on base.
The Gators would regain the lead right back in the bottom of the fourth on a fielding error by Freddy Zamora after Blake Reese singled to right field. It allowed Cory Acton to run home and give Florida the lead.
The Gators wouldn’t look back from there. Leftwich would continue to dominate and Calilao would start to shine, homering in the sixth on a right-field bomb and doubling to left in the eighth to set up a score after Blake Reese singled to left to bring him home.
He was the driver of the offense Sunday, finishing 3-4 on the day with two runs and two RBI on his 19th birthday. Other contributors to were Blake Reese who also drove in a run as part of his 2-4 day and Cory Acton who finished 2-4 as well with a run.
Leftwich would pitch through the fifth inning and was then replaced by LHP Jordan Butler who filled in nicely, pitching three innings and only allowing three hits, no earned runs and striking out one batter.
Miami couldn’t put more than one or two hits together at most in an inning after the fourth and in the ninth, freshman RHP Nolan Crisp stepped up to close the game out.
He would only pitch the final inning but struck out two batters and forced the third to ground out to second on his way to his fourth save of his very young career.
In total the Gators finished with ten strikeouts on the day between their pitchers, while the Canes only finished with four. Florida would also out-hit Miami 10-8 en route to the 4-1 victory.
Florida is a young team, but was able to snap a three-game losing streak and the Gators were able to find a way to win against tough competition. This was a huge series win for head coach Kevin O’Sullivan and this young Gators team.
Next up the team is set to travel to Jacksonville on Tuesday to take on the Dolphins. First pitch is set at six p.m.
