A day after playing what coach Kevin O’Sullivan called one of their best games of the season, the Gators had one of their worst outings to date.
Indiana continued to pound the ball while Florida (8-9) lost the stroke it found at the plate on Saturday in Sunday’s 7-4 loss at McKethan Stadium to give the Hoosiers the series win.
“I know what good hitting clubs look like,” O’Sullivan said. “They got a good hitting club.”
Indiana jumped out to a lead in the top of the first on Florida for the third straight game.
Catcher Kyle Schwarber hit a solo home run in the second at-bat of the game to give the Hoosiers (8-3) the lead for good. Schwarber went 10 for 14 at the plate with four RBI in the series.
“I’m not quite sure I’ve ever seen a guy have a weekend like that,” O’Sullivan said.
“He hit balls down, off the plate. He hit balls in. He hit balls up. He hit soft. He hit hard.”
Schwarber, Indiana’s two-hole hitter, combined with third and fourth hitters Sam Travis and Scott Donley to go 22 for 37 during the weekend at the plate with 11 RBI.
“It’s kind of like how we were for three years with Preston (Tucker) and Mike (Zunino),” O’Sullivan said. “Now I kind of know how it feels. You always turn around, and it looks like they’re coming up again.”
The Hoosiers recorded 36 hits in the series.
Despite their success at the plate on Sunday, O’Sullivan was pleased with the performance of freshman starter Eric Hanhold, who gave up four runs and seven hits in four innings of work.
“I thought Eric threw the ball good,” O’Sullivan said.
“Sometimes the line doesn’t say how a guy threw. I liked his demeanor. I liked his aggressiveness. The ball was coming out of his hand good. He threw three pitches for strikes.”
In the third inning, the Hoosiers extended their lead to 3-0 after Schwarber hit a single and Travis drove him in with a triple down the left-field line.
Donley followed with a single to center to plate Travis.
“We probably need to pitch in effectively more,” O’Sullivan said. “Guys can’t just stand there comfortable. I’m not saying by no means hit anybody, but you got to locate in.”
IU added two runs in the fifth, one in the seventh and another in the eighth on a Schwarber RBI double to go up 7-0 before UF scored four in the bottom of the inning.
Florida came into the series on a season-high four-game winning streak before losing Friday’s game 4-1.
The Gators rebounded to win 6-4 on Saturday behind a 4-for-4 day at the plate from Casey Turgeon.
O’Sullivan said he hadn’t decided on a starter for Tuesday’s game against FSU, but he expects to see fewer runs from the opposition.
“Do we have to locate better? Yeah.” O’Sullivan said.
“But if we compete and we get after it and cut the ball loose, our command gets a little bit better. We’ll get better as a team — certainly as a pitching staff.”
Contact Josh Jurnovoy at jjurnovoy@alligator.org.
Coach Brad Weitzel watches from the dugout during Florida’s 7-4 loss to Florida Gulf Coast on Feb. 24 at McKethan Stadium. FGCU and Indiana have each defeated UF in weekend series at McKethan Stadium this season. The Gators won every weekend series against non-conference opponents during the 2012 campaign.
