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Gators take series over Samford with 18-2 win

A close game was completely blown open in an eight-run seventh inning as the Florida Gators beat Samford 18-2 to take the weekend series.

The Gators wasted little time getting the offense going. Jacob Young extended his hitting streak to 25 games, just four shy of tying the school record, with a leadoff double. Jud Fabian reached on a fielder's choice as Young was able to slide in safely at third. Young scored on a ground out by Nathan Hickey. A strikeout and a walk later freshman catcher Mac Guscette singled to bring in two more, giving Florida a 3-0 advantage.

After the first inning, both starting pitchers settled in. Jack Leftwich didn't allow a hit until the fifth inning when Kaden Dreier ran into a fastball and deposited it over the wall in left center to draw the score closer at 3-1. Florida responded with a run of its own in the bottom half of the inning. Nathan Hickey missed a home run but a couple of inches, settling for a triple and scored one batter later when Jordan Butler reached on an error.

Samford pushed another run across the plate in the sixth inning with another solo home run but the Gator offense responded with five runs of its own, four off of a Nathan Hickey grand slam.

"I didn't think I had it," Hickey said of the home run. "The day before they were pitching me backwards. My first AB I got slider, changeup, changeup. My second at bat I got two fastballs. They were kind of pitching me backwards of what you would normally look for. That AB I got a 12-6 curveball for a strike and after that I was thinking if he throws me a fastball he's going to try and tunnel it. He threw me a fastball and I just hit it on the barrel."

Florida scored eight runs on just four hits in the eighth inning as the Samford pitching staff struggled to find the zone or outs. That allowed Florida to go deeper into their bullpen, getting David Leuthje an inning and closed out the game with freshman infielder Jordan Carrion. With two bullpen arms lost for the season (Nick Pogue, Tyler Nesbitt) Carrion had been throwing bullpens and could be an option out of the bullpen in the future.

For now, though, Carrion has been impressing at the plate and working himself into the lineup every day at second base. The freshman went 2-5 on Saturday with two RBI and two runs scored, then threw a clean ninth inning with two strikeouts. He's hitting .389 on the season.

Kevin O'Sullivan and the Gators will look to get a sweep on Sunday and get sophomore Hunter Barco going after a rough start a week ago.

"I'm really anxious to get Hunter Barco out there," O'Sullivan said. "He's worked really hard this week trying to correct some things in his delivery."



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