A Justin Shafer sacrifice fly scored the go-ahead run against South Carolina on Saturday night to even up the Southeastern Conference series and keep Florida tied at the top of its division.
No. 15 Florida (22-13, 8-6 SEC) knocked off No. 5 South Carolina (28-6, 8-6) 4-3 in 13 innings at Carolina Stadium in front of an announced crowd of 8,242. Freshman left hander A.J. Puk tossed 3.1 scoreless frames and brought in Florida’s first run in the eighth inning on a pinch hit RBI double into left center on an 0-2 count from Gamecocks right-hander Cody Mincey.
“I think he grew up an awful lot today. We’ve always known that he is very talented, but to do this on this stage when we lost the first one, was a heck of a performance both offensively and pitching wise,” Gators coach Kevin O’Sullivan told the IMG Gator Sports Network.
Richie Martin added Florida’s second run in the inning on a single before Casey Turgeon tied the game in the ninth on a sacrifice fly.
South Carolina jumped out to a three-run lead with RBIs on a double and a single in the fifth and another double in the sixth inning. Right-hander Aaron Rhodes allowed two earned runs in five innings for his first-career start. Rhodes entered the series tied for second on the team with 16 appearances.
Florida used seven total pitchers in Game 2, including Puk who pitched innings 10 through 13 before Shafer recorded the final two outs. Game 3 starts on Sunday at 1:30 p.m.
“It says a lot about our team that we’re not going to give up and that we’re going to fight until the end. Today we did that,” Puk said. “I’ve never come into hit, gone into the field and came into pitch in a game. It worked out today though.”
A radio broadcast contributed to this report
Follow Adam Pincus on Twitter @adamDpincus
