Gators Overwhelm Gamecocks

By Sean Ryan

CollegeBaseballInsider.com Co-Founder

 

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – It’s been quite a week for Florida freshman JJ Schwarz.

 

After becoming the first Gators player to blast four homers in a game against Stetson on Tuesday, Schwarz added another homer and drove in two as No. 10 Florida manhandled South Carolina 14-3 Friday night before a gathering of 5,060 at McKethan Stadium.

 

“I feel like if I don’t hit four home runs every game, fans will stop liking me,” joked Schwarz, who’s hitting .310 with 10 homers and 42 RBI, five homers and 12 RBI coming this week.

 

Schwarz' fifth home run of the week highlighted a four-run seventh inning. The line shot, like his first homer of the week, was a no-doubt missile that left in a hurry.

 

“Incredible is the exact word for it,” said junior left fielder Harrison Bader, who has been no slouch himself by going 3 for 5 with a double, his 10th homer and four RBI – his second straight game plating four runs.

 

The same can be said for the Gators’ offense, which racked up 17 hits (seven for extra bases) against the Gamecocks (6-7 SEC, 23-12) and is regularly giving Florida (7-6, 26-9) the chance to win even when the pitching falters. After hitting .268 in 2013 and .267 last year, the Gators boast a .307 average. They’re slugging .482 – ninth in the nation entering Friday night’s outburst – after slugging .350 a year ago. Not since 2011 (.307 average/.460 slugging) when the offense was led by Mike Zunino has Kevin O’Sullivan’s squad belted the ball around the park like this year.

 

While O’Sullivan admits the new ball has a lot to do with it, he also says his veterans are another year older and stronger. Whereas in previous years, the Gators have been pretty strong one through six or seven, this year there’s more depth in the lineup.

 

“For us in particular, we’re getting contributions from the bottom of our order,” O’Sullivan said, later adding, “We feel good about our guys one through nine.”

 

Bader, the three-hole hitter who entered the season with three homers and 46 RBI in his career, homered in the first off Wil Crowe (3-4) and now has 10 homers and 41 RBI in his junior campaign. Freshman Jeremy Vasquez – one of five rookies in the lineup – later added a two-run single to left for a 3-0 first-inning lead.

 

South Carolina put pressure on Logan Shore early by loading the bases in the first without scoring and plating two runs on RBI singles from Gene Cone and Kyle Martin. The Gamecocks then chased Shore (4 IP, 8 H, 3 ER) when they loaded the bases with no outs in the fifth. But senior Bobby Poyner (2-1) entered and got a double-play grounder that tied the game at 3 and a strikeout to minimize the damage.

 

“That was probably the turning point of the game,” O’Sullivan said.

 

The Gators responded with six runs in the fifth to stun the Gamecocks and added a single run in the sixth before adding four more in the seventh for the knockout. Crowe was tagged for seven hits and seven earned runs in 4.1 innings.

 

“We were behind; there were a lot of 1-0, 2-0 counts,” Gamecocks coach Chad Holbrook said. “We have to pitch ahead.”

 

In that fifth inning, No. 9 hitter Christian Hicks, a freshman third baseman hitting .146 and playing for the sick Josh Tobias (a .398 hitter), fouled off a few 3-2 pitches before turning on Crowe’s inside fastball for a line-shot homered that whispered the top of the right-field wall. The flood gates opened as the Gators got six straight hits, including RBI doubles from Bader, Buddy Reed (3 for 5, 2 R) and Schwarz.

 

“I’m just seeing it really well, that’s all it is,” Schwarz said.

 

Led by Poyner’s three scoreless innings – in which he was aided by a slick double play from shortstop Richie Martin, who made a sliding grab behind the bag, raced to the bag and fired to first as he ran across it – the Gators totaled five hitless innings of relief.

 

Max Schrock went 3 for 4 with a run and a stolen base for the Gamecocks.

 

NOTES

·         It took more than an hour to play the first two innings, as both Shore (35 pitches in first inning) and Crowe (36 pitches in first) labored.

·         Crowe settled in and located much better starting in the second inning. Including the last out in the first inning, he retired 10 straight until Hicks’ leadoff homer in the fifth, when things went downhill fast.

·         Richie Martin motored around from first to score on Bader’s grounder down the left-field line in the fifth as the Gators were aggressive on the bases all night. That aggressiveness also resulted in outfield assists from South Carolina left fielder Jordan Gore, who nailed Peter Alonso at the plate, and right fielder Elliott Caldwell, who threw Bader out at second on a two-run single in the seventh.