Number 1 Florida Baseball Falls To Unranked North Florida

The top ranked Gatosr baseball team is now 24-5 on the season after losing on the road to the University of North Florida 10-5 on Tuesday night.   The Ospreys improve to 18-13 on the season.

On an eight game road trip, the Orange and Blue have dropped four of the eight contests but Gators head coach Kevin O’Sullivan says the loss in Jacksonville was the worst.

Freshman Karsten Whitson started on the mound for Florida, and looked impressive in his first outing since suffering an injury several weeks ago, but by the end of the game, the Ospreys had seen eight different Gators pitchers.  Freshman Bobby Poyner took the loss after taking the mound after Whitson, allowing four runs in the second inning.

However, O’Sullivan says he was equally disappointed in the fielding and the bats. The Gators had three errors and did not hit in critical situations.   Senior outfielder Preston Tucker, who holds the top spot in UF program history in RBI’s, was just 1-for-4 at the plate in Jacksonville. O’Sullivan says he’s disappointed in Tucker’s batting lately and says they have to get him going at the plate to be successful.

In the face of the upset loss, O’Sullivan says the team is looking forward to returning home for a three game series starting Thursday against seventh ranked LSU (22-6). O’Sullivan says although he is not happy about the loss, they have to look towards the next game.

The Gators head into the LSU matchup with a 6-3 SEC record, the same record LSU has in the league but the Tigers are coming off a three game sweep of Arkansas.  You can catch all three games of the series on Country 103-7 The Gator, with coverage of Thursday’s game beginning at 7:25 PM.