The Florida baseball team had an air of confidence about it heading into a road series at LSU.
Jacob Young said he believed the Gators could go up to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and take two of three from the Tigers if they played the way they do at home, following Tuesday’s game. This was in spite of the fact that his team was winless through six SEC road games.
It appears that Young’s confidence was justified; the Gators played even better than they do at home.
UF trounced No. 14 LSU 16-9 to take a 1-0 series lead on Thursday night.
Florida (26-14, 7-9 SEC) rode 20 hits and a strong start from pitcher Tommy Mace to its first conference road win.
LSU pitcher Ma’Khail Hilliard got the best of the Gators in a quiet first inning. They punished him in the second.
The second inning began with Hilliard walking UF third baseman Cory Acton -- it didn’t end until he saw Acton again and struck him out. Florida racked up six hits and six runs in the eight at-bats in between Acton’s two plate appearances.
Right fielder Wil Dalton and Young, the second baseman, both singled to load the bases for center fielder Jud Fabian following the leadoff walk. Fabian hit a sacrifice fly to score Acton from third base for the first run of the game.
Catcher Brady Smith then hit a bases clearing double to put UF ahead 3-0. Left fielder Austin Langworthy and first baseman Kendrick Calilao followed with two-out RBI singles (Calilao’s scored two) to conclude the second-inning scoring.
Florida added another run in the third inning on a Smith RBI single. He had the best night of any Gator (and there were a lot of good performances), setting career-highs with four hits and four RBIs.
Dalton matched Smith with a season-high three hits, a good sign for the junior who has had a down year after leading the Gators in home runs in 2018.
Florida led 7-0 after two innings and expanded that lead with a pair of three-run home runs in the third and fourth innings. Acton blasted his first career home run to right field in the third inning. McConnell went deep for his team-leading ninth homer in the next inning. He has now homered in back-to-back games and has three home runs in the past five games.
UF added a run in the sixth inning on a Christian Flint RBI single and another in the eighth on a Smith home run.
Langworthy joined the home run party in the ninth inning, scoring the 16th run of the game for Florida, tied for its fourth-highest scoring output all season.
It took the Tigers (24-15, 9-7 SEC) four innings to figure Mace out. By the time they did, they were trailing by 13 runs.
Mace yielded a two-RBI single to first baseman Cade Beloso in the fifth inning and two more runs in the seventh inning, but otherwise neutralized LSU’s lineup. He earned his seventh win of the season behind a seven-inning, nine-strikeout performance. Mace surrendered 10 hits, two walks and four runs, but had more than enough run support from his offense.
Hunter Ruth relieved Mace on the mound and allowed two runs in 0.2 innings. LSU Saul Garza hit a solo home run off Ruth and center fielder Antoine Duplantis hit an RBI single. Duplantis finished the night 4 for 5 with a run scored and an RBI, but his performance was overshadowed by UF’s offensive outburst. As a team, LSU had 16 hits, but left 10 runners on.
The Tigers got three more runs across the plate in the final inning, but the 10-run deficit they faced heading into the inning was way too much to overcome.
Six Florida players had multi-hit nights, led by Smith’s four and Dalton’s three, and Florida’s 16 runs and 20 hits were both season-highs for the team in SEC play.
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Tommy Mace earned his seventh win of the season behind a seven-inning, nine-strikeout performance against LSU Thursday. Mace surrendered 10 hits, two walks and four runs.
