Pitching was the difference in both midweek games between Florida and Florida Gulf Coast. The Eagles held the advantage on the mound Wednesday night in a 7-2 victory over the Gators.
FGCU’s starting pitcher Evan Lumbert held No. 5 UF (10-5) hitless through six innings, and the Eagles (9-4) split the series after being shut out on Tuesday.
“Credit FGCU, they played good tonight,” coach Kevin O’Sullivan said in a release. “They played hard and played well enough to win.”
Florida had strung together five straight strong offensive performances in the past week, including a 15-0 win over Florida Gulf Coast on Tuesday.
But Lumbert (2-1) quieted the Gators offense and came just a few innings shy of history.
Through six innings Lumbert had a perfect game going. He retired all 18 batters he faced and his team held a 7-0 lead.
Jacob Young broke up Lumbert’s shot at history with a single up the middle to lead off the seventh inning, extending his hitting streak to seven games.
In the next at-bat, Brady McConnell bunted to Lumbert, whose throw sailed over the first baseman’s glove, allowing Young to score from first and McConnell to advance to third. The single also extended McConnell’s hitting streak to a team-high 11 games.
Kendrick Calilao drove McConnell in on a single for his 19th RBI of the season, which leads the SEC.
But that was the extent of the Gators offense, other than another single from Young in the eighth inning.
Florida recorded three of its four hits and scored its only two runs of the game in the seventh inning.
The Eagles offense built a lead early while Lumbert kept the Gators at bay.
David Luethje pitched a three up, three down first inning but allowed the first two batters of the second inning to reach base.
Jay Hayes hit a ground-rule RBI double to right-center field to score Joe Kinker for the first run of the game. Richie Garcia later hit a sac-fly to send Kohl Gilmore home, and FGCU led 2-0 after two innings.
Ben Specht relieved Luethje in the third inning and did not fare well. He walked three of the five batters he faced. An error by Cory Acton allowed one of the batters that Specht walked to score. Nick Pogue replaced Specht after his third walk of the inning loaded the bases with one out.
Pogue got out of the inning but did not escape unscathed. He yielded an RBI single to Hayes and walked in the next run with the bases loaded.
The Eagles went through the entire order in the third inning on just one hit. The four walks by the Gators pitching staff proved costly as they bagged three runs and led 5-0.
Florida Gulf Coast added insurance runs in the sixth and seventh innings with Florida still scoreless at that point.
UF’s streakiness has been at the root of its problems this season. The Gators came dangerously close to being no-hit while the pitching staff allowed six doubles and walked seven batters. The night before the team had its best pitching performance of the season and a strong game at the plate.
“We’re still worrying about what happened on Sunday against Winthrop, and then what happened last night,” O’Sullivan said. “It’s over, we’ve got to move on. Good or bad, you’ve got to move on to the next day and I thought we carried the last three games into today.”
Follow Kyle Wood in Twitter @Kkylewood and contact him at kwood@alligator.org.
Gators baseball coach Kevin O'Sullivan said his team carried its previous three games into Wednesday night's contest. Florida lost 7-2 to FGCU.
