Gators Baseball begins series against No. 2 Arkansas

The Florida Gators baseball team (19-10, 3-6 SEC) is up against the No. 2 Arkansas Razorbacks (22-5, 7-2 SEC) for a three-game series beginning Thursday at Florida Ballpark. The Gators dominated Florida A&M in their midweek matchup Tuesday, 13-3. Florida hasn’t won a series since March 20 when it clinched the Alabama series, 2-1.

https://twitter.com/GatorsBB/status/1511540957405057030?s=20&t=xj-KaPB8z92FIlLluwbWLA

Gators Stats

Jud Fabian has been a key player for Florida at the plate. In March, the junior launched 10 home runs with a .857 slugging percentage and recorded 22 walks. Fabian hit his SEC-leading 13th home run of the season against the Rattlers Tuesday, marking the 45th of his career. He is only two homers behind Mike Zunino for fifth on Florida’s all-time home run list.

https://twitter.com/GatorsBB/status/1511748628502786059?s=20&t=xj-KaPB8z92FIlLluwbWLA

Wyatt Langford, Josh Rivera and Deric Fabian were also vital in Florida’s crushing Tuesday victory. All three picked up multiple hits: three each Langford and Rivera and two for D. Fabian. The Gators overall recorded 17 hits in the game and plated 10 runs in the first four innings alone.

Florida pitching only allowed five hits and three runs in the game. All three Rattlers runs were scored during the eighth inning, the only inning Timmy Manning pitched. Nick Pogue was on the mound the longest for the Gators, pitching the first three innings. Pogue had three strikeouts and allowed no hits.

A look at Arkansas

The Razorbacks have had a crushing season so far. Arkansas destroyed UCA Tuesday with an astounding 21-9 win. Dylan Leach hit for the cycle in the game, becoming the second Razorback to do so since 1994. Robert Moore hit for the cycle last season, and in Tuesday’s win went 4-for-4 with six RBI.

You can now tell your grandkids about that time you saw Dylan Leach hit for the cycle with home runs from both sides of the plate. pic.twitter.com/oJWS0O7TdH

— Arkansas Baseball (@RazorbackBSB) April 6, 2022

Including Leach, seven Razorbacks ended the UCA game with multiple hits. Leach was also one of five Arkansas hitters to rack up multiple RBI, along with Braydon Webb (4), Jace Bohrofen (3), Brady Slavens (3) and Moore (2).

The team has only suffered five losses this season, two of them to SEC opponents: Missouri (March 26) and Mississippi State (April 3).

Thursday’s game is set to begin at 6 p.m.