April 13, 2003
Gainesville, Fla. – Florida used four home runs for three big innings Sunday to defeat South Carolina 13-4 and salvage the final game of a Southeastern Conference baseball series.
South Carolina won the first two games 9-4 and 10-2. The weekend results left the Gamecocks with a 22-14 overall record, 7-8 in the SEC, while Florida is 25-11-1, 6-8-1.
Mike Pete, 2-1, the second of four Gator pitchers, earned the win and Cliff Donald, 0-1, making his first career start for South Carolina, took the loss.
After South Carolina took a 2-0 lead on a solo second inning home run by Kevin Melillo and an RBI third inning hit by Michael Campbell, Florida struck for five runs in the third on a two run homer by Justin Tordi and a three run shot by Mario Garza. It was the fourth of the year for Tordi and the seventh for Garza.
South Carolina cut the Gator lead to 5-4 with two sixth inning runs on three hits but missed a chance to tie or take the lead by leaving two runners stranded.
Florida had its second five run outburst in the seventh. The Gators had four hits in the inning including a three run homer by Brian Rose, his seventh of the year. C. J. Smith hit a two run homer, his 12th, as Florida added a three run eighth to close out the scoring.
Florida had 14 hits, three each by Ben Harrison and Rose. Smith and Tordi had two hits. Four South Carolina players — Jon Coutlangus, Justin Harris, Landon Powell and Melillo — had two hits. The two hits by Harris extended his hitting streak to 14 games. He had 10 hits in the three game series with Florida and, with two hits in a mid-week game at Clemson, had 12 hits for the week.
