Florida’s offense was disappointing against the Jacksonville Dolphins on Tuesday.
The Gators went five innings without recording a hit and failed to capitalize on several occasions with runners in scoring position.
The offensive woes continued Friday against the Louisiana State Tigers.
Tigers starting pitcher Luke Holman pitched six quality innings and surrendered just one run to Florida’s lineup. The Gators were simply outpitched.
The No. 6 Florida Gators (12-9, 2-2 SEC) lost to the No. 5 Louisiana State Tigers (19-4, 2-2 SEC) 6-1 Friday night at Alex Box Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Holman cruised through the first three innings and recorded all three outs with strikeouts.
The junior right-handed pitcher was spectacular against the Gators’ lethal lineup.
It wasn’t until the fourth inning when junior outfielder Ty Evans whacked a pitch just past the right field wall for a solo home run. The ball didn’t appear to have the power to go over the fence but continued to soar until it just eclipsed the purple outfield wall and landed in the second row.
After that, Florida’s offense was nonexistent.
It recorded just two more hits — a single by Gators third baseman Dale Thomas in the seventh and a double by shortstop Colby Shelton in the ninth inning.
While Florida’s offense struggled, so did its pitcher, junior starter Cade Fisher.
Fisher pitched five innings and surrendered five runs and pitched 101 total pitches. He recorded five strikeouts and two walks.
Overall, it wasn’t a bad performance from the sophomore. Three of his runs occurred in the fifth inning when he lost control of his pitches and was taken out without recording an out for junior right-hander Ryan Slater.
Florida’s bullpen pitched three scoreless innings. Despite the performance, the Gators offense struggled too much to capitalize.
Florida will continue its series with the Tigers at 5 p.m. Saturday. The game will be broadcast on SEC Network+.
Contact Luke Adragna at ladragna@alligator.org. Follow him on Twitter @lukeadrag.
Luke Adragna is a third-year journalism student and the Florida Gators football reporter at The Alligator. He is a cat ethusiast and completes the NYT Daily Mini in less than a minute each day.
