FSU lived dangerously, and Preston Tucker made the Seminoles regret it.
They dared Tucker to swing Tuesday, and his four RBIs helped No. 6 UF (13-3) beat No. 5 FSU 8-5 in front of a season-high 4,773 fans in McKethan Stadium.
Tucker pulled a fastball in the third inning over the right-center field fence for a solo home run, his second-round tripper in as many days. The sophomore led the Gators in all three Triple Crown categories in 2009, but opponents have pitched around him this season.
“He’s a bit frustrated,” coach Kevin O’Sullivan said about Tucker’s lack of hittable pitches. “The first 10, 12 games, he wasn’t getting pitched to a lot. But we kept telling him, ‘At some point, they’re going to have to pitch to you.’”
The slugger followed his home run with a shot that brought the crowd out of its seats in the fourth inning. With the bases loaded, Tucker missed a grand slam by inches when he pulled a pitch to the fence for a sacrifice fly.
The sophomore again came to the plate with the bases loaded in the next frame, but FSU coach Mike Martin decided not to test Tucker a second time. Reliever Tyler Everett didn’t throw a pitch near the strike zone and walked the first baseman on four pitches, gift-wrapping a run to the Gators.
The scoreboard was active early in the game, as the two teams combined for 11 runs in the first four innings.
UF second baseman Josh Adams broke out of a slump when he hit a two-run homer just inside the right-field foul pole in the first.
The home run pulled UF within one after FSU put three on the scoreboard in the top of the frame.
“Those two runs gave the team a little boost,” Adams said. “Hitting’s contagious, so everybody kind of followed after that.”
Adams drove in another run when he roped a single with the bases loaded in the fourth inning. Since going 3 for 3 on opening day, Feb. 19, the junior has hit just .263. He said he has been impatient in the batter’s box.
“It’s baseball,” he said. “You get anxious at times.”
The Seminoles entered Tuesday averaging 10 runs per game and appeared to be on track for another offensive outburst when cleanup hitter Mike McGee belted a three-run homer off freshman Hudson Randall in the first.
Randall allowed two more runs in the next frame.
But unlike the last meeting between the two teams, when FSU chased starter Anthony DeSclafani before he could even get one out, the Gators’ pitching staff settled down.
The Seminoles were held scoreless and managed only one hit in the last seven innings against Randall and relievers Nick Maronde and Kevin Chapman.
Maronde, who has been inconsistent this season, allowed no hits in three innings while striking out three.
The performance was much better than his outing Sunday against Charleston Southern, when he gave up two runs in 1 1/3 innings.
“When a guy doesn’t do as well as you’d hoped, I truly want to get him out there as quickly as I possibly can to get their feet wet again,” O’Sullivan said. “If they’re good, they’re good.”
