For whatever fans at Harmon Stadium say of the game between the No. 14 Florida Gators (6-2) and the North Florida Ospreys (1-7) Tuesday night, they cannot say that it was uneventful.
Florida hung 11 runs on UNF, its third-straight game north of 10 runs, in front of a road crowd in Jacksonville, Florida, that seemed to sport more orange and blue than navy and silver.
Sophomore Brandon Sproat received his second start of the year against the Ospreys last Tuesday evening; the righty also started last Wednesday at Florida Ballpark, when the Gators secured a 3-1 victory over UNF. Sproat threw five frames, delivering a career-high eight strikeouts, allowing four hits and one earned run before freshmen Blake Purnell and Ryan Slater closed out the final four innings.
On Tuesday evening in Duval, Sproat barely had time to get into a rhythm before being replaced with freshman Carsten Finnvold. Still, he delivered two scoreless innings featuring two strikeouts and just one hit.
Neither offense could find anything to build off of early in the game – neither team recorded a run until the fourth inning – but a single from junior Jud Fabian to open the top of the fourth kicked the Gators’ offense into gear. Sophomore Wyatt Langford singled as well, getting Fabian to third and setting up a runners-at-the-corners situation for junior BT Riopelle. Riopelle walked, passing the RBI opportunity to junior Josh Rivera.
Rivera delivered.
Yet another single brought two runners in, putting Florida ahead 2-0 with one out on the board. Sophomore Mac Guscette provided a sacrifice fly to deep center field, enough of a shot to get Riopelle home from third base after tagging up. After struggling to get any sort of offense going early, the Gators suddenly had a comfortable lead.
The Ospreys were not going to go down lightly, though. In the bottom of the fourth, UNF found itself in its most dangerous spot yet with two runners in scoring position. Despite the jam, Finnvold kept his cool and worked through the frame without producing any earned runs. He would finish the game with two innings, two K’s and no hits allowed.
Florida got right back to work in the fifth, promptly loading the bases. With two outs, and a 1-2 count, Riopelle was a strike away from wasting the opportunity. Instead, the Coastal Carolina transfer was hammered by a pitch which brought home freshman Deric Fabian from third. Rivera was walked on the ensuing at-bat, bringing home Halter and pushing the Gator lead to five.
After another clinical inning from the Gator bats, freshman Matt Neely took over for Finnvold in the bottom of the fifth. The Seville, Florida, native also worked just two innings, continuing the trend of the night, but he totaled more strikeouts than Sproat and Finnvold combined with five. Neely only allowed one hit, a double that was quickly followed by two quick outs to end the inning.
The quality homecoming performance for Halter continued in the top of the sixth. The sophomore singled, stole second and got all the way home off of an RBI single from Jud.
In the top of the seventh, the onslaught continued courtesy of sophomore Sterlin Thompson. The standout recorded three home runs on the year before Tuesday, and added a fourth with a solo blast to deep center field.
UF’s penultimate scoring play of the night would be a first for one of its freshmen. After Guscette was walked to open the top of the eighth, Deric went yard for the first time in his career, a two-run homer elevating the score to 9-0.
The forest behind Harmon Stadium was not done being peppered by balls, though, as Rivera blasted a two-run shot back into the trees behind left field to close out the game and push Florida into double-digit scoring.
The Ospreys prevented the shutout with a lone run in the bottom of the eight, and another in the bottom of the ninth, but that was all for UNF’s bats.
The Gators return to Florida Ballpark Wednesday for a matchup with the Florida A&M Rattlers before a weekend series in Coral Gables, Florida, against the No. 22 Miami Hurricanes.
Contact Carson Cashion at ccashion@alligator.org. Follow him on Twitter @CarsonCashion
Carson Cashion is a third-year sports journalism major at UF, and the sports editor at The Alligator for the 2022 summer semester. A native of Altamonte Springs, Carson spends his free time walking his dog, Baxter, and listening to good music. He is an avid Tennessee sports fan, and eagerly awaits watching one of his teams win a championship for the first time.
