All Nelson Maldonado did was back off the plate a little bit.
Through his first 26 at-bats as a Gator, the freshman had mustered just two hits.
But on Friday night, he doubled that total — all thanks to a small mechanical adjustment.
“I was starting to get jammed a little bit,” he said. “I started barreling up balls more tonight.”
Maldonado was just one of many UF players to record multiple hits, as No. 1 Florida (15-1) pounded out a season-high 20 hits and defeated Harvard 16-5 Friday night at McKethan Stadium in Gainesville.
Maldonado, who went 2-for-4 with two runs scored, said he was more confident after seeing his teammates all record hits.
“It makes you feel good as a player when everyone else is hitting,” he said, “like, ‘oh let me go up there and try to add on to the hit list.’”
Florida didn’t waste time hammering Harvard pitching.
The Gators rallied for four runs in the first, plating their first run on a Deacon Liput single up the middle that scored JJ Schwarz.
Then with two on, sophomore Mike Rivera crushed a three-run home run to left center. The blast was his team-leading fourth of the season.
The Crimson (2-3) retaliated for two runs in the second inning, when they began to figure out UF starting pitcher Logan Shore.
Harvard opened the inning with three straight hits, plating a run on a Conor Quinn RBI single and a Drew Reid RBI fielder’s choice to third.
Shore, who allowed just one earned run in 21 innings this season coming into the game, surrendered two runs in the second inning alone. The junior didn’t have his best stuff, giving up five runs on nine hits through six innings.
“Logan wasn’t at his sharpest,” coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “But credit those guys, they swung the bat really good.”
Florida added a run on a Buddy Reed RBI groundout in the second inning to pull ahead 5-2, but Harvard quickly answered back.
Following a two-out flare single in the third inning, Harvard third baseman John Fallon laced a two-run homer into the left field bleachers to bring the Crimson within one.
Then the floodgates opened in the bottom half of the third.
The Gators cranked out six runs, scoring the first two on a balk and an error on an errant pickoff attempt at first. UF then scored on RBI doubles from Dalton Guthrie and Peter Alonso and a two-run single from Liput.
Harvard added its fifth and final run in the sixth inning on a sacrifice fly ball, and again UF countered in the bottom half.
Florida tacked on four runs, highlighted by a Schwarz two-run double, an Alonso sacrifice fly and a Liput RBI single. Liput, an Oviedo native, finished 4-for-6 with four RBIs.
Liput said UF’s hitting was contagious.
“One person caught fire and everyone just kind of followed,” he said.
In the eighth, Florida scored run No. 16 on a Mark Kolozsvary RBI groundout.
Florida relievers Scott Moss and Eddy Demurias closed out the game on the mound for the Gators, striking out a combined six batters through three scoreless innings.
Florida and Harvard will square off again for a doubleheader Saturday starting at 4 p.m.
Contact Patrick Pinak at ppinak@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @Pinakk12.
Nelson Maldonado bats during Florida's 5-4 win against North Florida on March 9, 2016, at McKethan Stadium.
