LSU reliever Jared Bradford had the outing of his nightmares.
After coming in to relieve starter Blake Martin in the seventh inning, Bradford came off the mound with an ERA 1.49 points higher than when he went on it.
The Gators got five straight hits off Bradford, capped by a three-run shot from catcher Buddy Munroe, his second of the year. He wasn't even trying to hit a homer.
"I was just looking … to pop something deep in the outfield. You know, score a sac fly," Munroe said. "I just turned on it and got a good piece of it."
Bradford left the game after that, but UF (19-5, 6-1 Southeastern Conference) scored another run in the inning on its way to an 8-5 win against LSU (15-9, 2-5 SEC).
UF coach Kevin O'Sullivan admitted that he said nothing special to the team before the inning to get his players fired up.
"We actually said something in the fourth," O'Sullivan said with a chuckle. "That didn't help."
The real reason UF got hot was LSU's pitching change. Martin went six innings, giving up only four hits and two runs - both on solo homers from Cole Figueroa in the first and Matt den Dekker in the fifth.
But the second the Tigers went from a lefty to a righty, the Gators, down 4-2, pounced.
"It showed a lot of heart, that inning," den Dekker said. "It showed a lot of poise not to fold, but to keep battling."
All was not over after the seventh, however.
LSU had a furious ninth-inning rally, putting the tying run on the plate twice and using a UF error to its advantage.
Still, the comeback never happened. UF reliever Josh Edmondson came in to retire the last two batters on a ground out to third and a strikeout that electrified the home crowd. It was Edmondson's first save of the year.
UF starter Billy Bullock (3-2) got some redemption with a win after earning an eight-inning no-decision on March 21 against Mississippi.
He went seven innings, allowing 10 hits and two earned runs while striking out three Tigers on Friday.
"I didn't have my best stuff, and I had a few bad pitches, but the guys picked me up real well," Bullock said.
His night ended on his 100th pitch, a home run to LSU's Matt Clark after O'Sullivan came out to the mound to talk to him.
"Sully came out and told me not to give him anything to hit," Bullock said, laughing. "I left it over the middle of the plate, and he crushed it."
The teams play the second of three games Saturday at 4 p.m.
