The Gators might have thought their offense was cooling down on Sunday right after their best stretch of the season.
On Friday night, they proved that wasn’t the case.
Florida (24-19, 11-8 Southeastern Conference) used a season-high three home runs to top Tennessee (17-23, 5-14 SEC) 7-2 at McKethan Stadium to pick up its 10th win in its last 11 games.
Missouri held Florida to just two runs on seven hits as it snapped UF’s eight-game winning streak in Columbia on Sunday, but the Gators’ bats quickly responded by defeating USF on Tuesday, 12-1.
In the last two games, coach Kevin O’Sullivan has been pleased with his team’s situational hitting.
“I think one thing we’ve needed to improve on was doing damage in offensive counts,” O’Sullivan said. “I thought we put good swings on some pitches tonight.”
After the top of the lineup went down in order in the bottom of the first against Volunteers starter Aaron Quillen, right fielder Justin Shafer led off the second inning by sending a 1-0 pitch just over the fence. Left fielder Vincent Jackson got his glove over the wall but couldn’t come down with it.
“I thought he caught it,” Shafer said of his fourth homer on the season. “’’Cause they weren’t really signaling anything and he got up there really high.”
Freshman Richie Martin extended the lead with a one-out RBI single in the third inning. Second baseman Casey Turgeon advanced him to second with a single to left. Both scored when Taylor Gushue took the first pitch he saw from Quillen and hit a three-run home run to right field off the scoreboard.
“I was trying to be aggressive,” Gushue said. “I just wanted to get the first strike I could handle and just put a good swing on it … Good things happen when you do that.”
Since the Gators’ 9-4 win against North Florida on March 19, Gushue has hit .369 with five home runs and 15 RBI. During that span, he’s raised his average from .232 to .307.
Turgeon added a solo shot in the fifth, and Gushue and Shafer followed him with back-to-back doubles to put Florida up 7-0.
The three-homer game marked a rare power outburst for a Florida team that has been much less reliant on power than it was a year ago. Through 43 games in 2012, the Gators had 56 home runs as a team. After Friday night’s win, the 2013 Gators have a total of 23 long balls.
“We’re not the team we were last year,” Turgeon said. “We’re not going to hit a ball out every single time. But we can still do it, you know. It’s a different team this year, and we swung the bats well tonight.”
Florida got 5.2 shutout innings from starter Danny Young, who took the place of Jonathon Crawford after the presumed Friday starter rolled his left ankle in practice on Thursday.
Young left the game in the sixth after taking a line drive from Jackson off his lip. He walked off the field on his own power and received stitches at Shands Hospital after the game.
O’Sullivan said he expected Crawford to return for Game 2, which is Saturday at 7.
“He could’ve pitched tonight,” O’Sullivan said of Crawford. “But I didn’t want to push it.”
Contact Josh Jurnovoy at jjurnovoy@alligator.org.
Sophomore catcher Taylor Gushue swings Florida’s 14-5 win against South Carolina on April 12 at McKethan Stadium. Gushue leads the Gators with 30 RBI.
