The Gators had their work cut out for them two weeks ago. An eight-game road trip that included three top-10 teams awaited them.
They’ve responded and then some having defeated Florida Gulf Coast (24-14, 9-3 Atlantic Sun) 7-1 on Tuesday night to finish its road trip against Kentucky, Florida State, South Carolina and Gulf Coast.
The No. 9 Gators (24-13, 9-6 Southeastern Conference) started the trip a game up on the Gamecocks in the SEC Eastern Division. They have sole possession of first place and own the tiebreak against the Gamecocks having won five of their last eight games.
Florida naturally could have bought into the hype with its first top-10 ranking in two years. It didn’t.
“I really like how we’re playing now. Obviously we have a long way to go,” O’Sullivan said. “We’re only halfway through the conference schedule here, but this is an important game. This is one of those trap games.”
Catcher Taylor Gushue drove in Richie Martin twice on singles up the middle. Casey Turgeon hit a RBI single through the right side to score Buddy Reed. Turgeon went 2 for 5 on Tuesday night. The RBI represented the 14th two-out run scored by UF on its eight-game road trip.
Martin drove in Turgeon to right field for his third hit against the Eagles and took second on the throw home in the fourth inning. Florida had nine hits by the fifth inning with eight coming on singles and the last a double by Reed.
Florida added three more in the seventh inning on singles by Braden Mattson and Peter Alonso and a double down the left-field line by reigning SEC Freshman of the Week A.J. Puk.
Every starter besides third baseman John Sternagel registered a hit.
“It’s just like anything else in this game. You kind of go through spurts where you’re seeing the ball good as a group and there are spurts where you’re not seeing the ball good,” O’Sullivan said. “I think the road trip has helped. Hopefully it has brought our team closer together.”
Right-hander Ryan Harris threw two scoreless innings in his first appearance of two or more innings since March 21. O’Sullivan wanted Harris to throw about 30 pitches in his first career start.
Left-hander Kirby Snead followed Harris with his usual effective work, getting five-straight groundouts from the third to fifth innings.
He retired 12 of his 13 batters at Hammond Stadium. Snead has not allowed a run in all but four of his 18 appearances.
“Kirby Snead was outstanding. He threw four innings. I don’t even think he threw 40 pitches,” O’Sullivan said. “He’s going to be ready for this weekend.”
Gulf Coast scored its only run on a seventh-inning double over the head of centerfielder Harrison Bader by Michael Suchy off right-hander Justin Shafer.
The right-hander pitched two innings in relief before freshman Shaun Anderson finished the Eagles off in the ninth. Florida outhit Gulf Coast 15-4 and took advantage of three Gulf Coast errors.
Florida, named No. 1 in RPI on Tuesday, is 12-6 this season against the NCAA’s top-25 RPI teams and 8-1 against South Carolina, Florida State and LSU.
The Gators avenged a loss to Gulf Coast on Feb. 27 and clinched the three-game season series.
Georgia visits Gainesville for a three-game series starting Friday night at 7:30, which also begins an eight-game home stand.
“It’s tough to go in the venues we played at,” O’Sullivan said.
“We went up to Florida State and played in that environment. I think it was a sellout. We go to South Carolina and obviously we had three sellouts there. We had to bond together as a group.”
A UF radio broadcast contributed to this report.
Follow Adam Pincus on Twitter @adamDpincus
Taylor Gushue bats during Florida’s 3-1 win against FSU on March 18 at McKethan Stadium. Gushue was a second-team All-American in 2014 after batting a career-high .318
