Florida Baseball Ties Up The Kentucky Series With An 8-5 Win

Florida Gators Baseball evened their series with the Kentucky Wildcats this evening in Lexington. The Gators defeated the Wildcats, 8-5, where they grabbed 11 hits to top Kentucky’s 10. Florida will look for a similar result Saturday as they face the Wildcats for the series finale at 1 p.m.

Never stop fighting 😤#GatorsWin | #GoGators

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— Florida Gators Baseball (@GatorsBB) May 8, 2021

 

At the Plate

The Kentucky Wildcats opened up the scoring in the bottom of the second when Kentucky hit a hard single to the right field to send home two runners. The Florida Gators were able to respond at their next appearance at the plate when Jud Fabian homered center field to bring in Hickey and tie the score at 2-2. Then in the top of the fifth, Fabian decided to go yard again to left field to put the Gators on top 3-2. In the bottom of the fifth, Kentucky put their bats to work and two singles brought in two RBIs to put the score at 4-3. Then, a base hit from Calilao in the top of the eighth tied the score at 4-4. Florida found themselves down 5-4 again in the bottom of the eighth as the game continued its back-and-forth trend.

The top of the ninth became Florida’s last chance to make an impact. Down to his last strike, Cory Acton tied the game with a single to center field, bringing home Liebert. Finally, to put the nail in the coffin, Calilao launches one out of the park to grab three RBIs and settled the score at 8-5.

https://twitter.com/GatorsBB/status/1390858191479742464

 

On the Mound

Florida’s Tommy Mace pitched a solid seven innings where he struck out nine. Following Mace, Florida made a few adjustments when they put Van Der Weid and then Scott on the mound briefly. To close out the game, Jack Leftwich came in and grabbed a strikeout of his own.