April 10, 2015
GAINESVILLE, FLA. – A six-run bottom of the fifth inning broke a 3-3 tie as 10th ranked Florida defeated 20th ranked South Carolina 14-3 on Friday night at McKethan Stadium. The Gamecocks drop to 23-12 and 6-7 in the SEC with Florida now 26-9 and 7-6 in league play.
Florida reliever Bobby Poyner pitched three scoreless innings of relief to earn the win. He is now 2-1 on the year. Poyner, Shaun Anderson and Frank Rubio combined for five hitless innings of relief with just one walk to limit the Gamecocks after Carolina had three runs on eight hits in the first five innings. South Carolina starter Wil Crowe suffered the loss and is now 3-4 on the year. He allowed seven runs on seven hits in 4.1 innings with three walks and three strikeouts.
Trailing 3-0 after the first inning, the Gamecocks fought back to tie the game at 3-3 with a pair of runs in the second and one in the fifth. DC Arendas led off the second with a single and with two outs scored on Gene Cone’s RBI base hit to right-center. The Gamecocks put together two more two-out base hits as Max Schrock singles and Kyle Martin singled to right field scoring Cone. The Gamecocks then tied it in the fifth inning. Schrock singled for his third hit of the game followed by a base hit up the middle by Kyle Martin. After a walk to Elliott Caldwell loaded the bases, Florida made a pitching change bringing in senior left-hander Bobby Poyner to replace UF starter Logan Shore. The Gamecocks would tie it on a 6-4-3 double play off the bat of Gore to score Schrock.
The Gators batted around in the bottom of the fifth with six runs on seven hits including six consecutive hits at one point in the frame to take a 9-3 lead. Christian Hicks led off the inning with a solo homer. A RBI double from Harrison Bader, RBI single from Peter Alonso, RBI double off the bat of Buddy Reed and JJ Schwarz’ RBI double helped push the Gators lead to six runs. Florida would add one more in the sixth inning and four more in the seventh to complete the scoring.
Florida out-hit Carolina 17-8 on the evening. Bader and Reed had three hits apiece, with Alonso, Schwarz and Jeremy Vasquez with two hits apiece as well. All nine Florida starters had at least one hit in the game. Schrock went 3-for-4 to lead the Gamecocks at the plate with Kyle Martin adding two hits as well.
GAME CHANGER
The six-run fifth inning gave the Gators a lead they would not relinquish.
KEY STAT
Florida had 14 of 17 hits from the fifth inning to the eighth inning to score 11 runs in the final four innings at the plate.
NOTABLES
• Max Schrock’s single in the top of the first inning extended his hitting streak to seven games. Schrock’s hitting streak is the longest of his career. Schrock had three hits and has four multi-hit games in the last five games for the Gamecocks.
• Kyle Martin was 2-for-4 and has 13 multi-hit games on the year, the second highest total on the team.
• Wil Crowe’s pickoff in the bottom of the first inning was his first pickoff of the year.
• Freshman right-hander Tyler Johnson pitched a career-high 1.1 innings and struck out a career-high two batters in his fourth appearance of the year.
QUOTABLE
Head Coach Chad Holbrook
“It was a fun game for four and a half (innings). We were battling and competing and we had some opportunities there. We had bases loaded in the first and bases loaded with no outs in the fifth. When you go on the road in this league against teams like that, you have to take advantage of those opportunities. We didn’t and they just kind of overwhelmed our pitchers in the fifth, sixth and seventh. They are a very gifted team in a lot of ways, especially offensively, if you make mistakes they will make you pay. We’ll bounce back and we’ll see if we can take advantage of some of those opportunities we can get tomorrow.
UP NEXT
The series continues on Saturday with first pitch at 6 p.m. The game will be televised on the SEC Network and can be heard on the Gamecock IMG Network including flagship station, 107.5 FM, “The Game.”
