Junior
Mike Zunino (Cape Coral, Fla.) had a game-tying homer in the sixth and
delivered a two-run shot with two outs in the eighth to help No. 1 Florida
(13-1) defeat Florida Gulf Coast (6-6), 4-2, in the opener of a weekend series
on Friday night at McKethan Stadium. Zunino’s third multiple-homer outing of
the season increased the Gators’ winning streak to 11 games, the longest for
the program since from Feb. 2-27, 2002.
It
was great pitcher’s duel, as Florida junior Hudson Randall (Atlanta,
Ga.) (7.1 IP, 6 H, 6 K) and FGCU sophomore Ricky Knapp (7.0 IP, 5 H) each
allowed a pair of runs courtesy of a round-tripper. Junior Steven Rodriguez
(Miami, Fla.) (3-0) entered the game with an Eagle runner aboard with one down
in the eighth and Zunino gunned down sophomore Brandon Bednar attempting to
steal second with a perfect strike to freshman second baseman Casey Turgeon
(Palm Harbor, Fla.) and Rodriguez fanned senior Ryan Gebhart to preserve the
stalemate.
In
the home part of the inning, freshman righty Brady Anderson (1-1) took over on
the mound and recorded the first two outs before senior Preston Tucker
(Tampa, Fla.) stroked a single into right field. Tucker’s 276th hit as a
collegian matched David Eckstein (1994-97) for third on the school’s career
list. Zunino stepped to the plate and smacked a 1-2 offering deep to left field
for his team-leading seventh homer to move the Orange and Blue in front for the
first time in the contest.
“It
was one of those where he (Tucker) is a great batter in front of me and I know
he's going to battle,” Zunino said. “He did a great job of fighting in the
count and getting a ball he could handle right on the corner. I got the two
strikes and tried to barrel a ball up, and was lucky to get a slider a little
bit up.”
With
FGCU down to its last three outs, junior Austin Maddox (Jacksonville,
Fla.) caught sophomore Sean Dwyer looking on strikes and then surrendered a
pinch-hit single into left field to junior Mike Reeves. However, the Gator
closer rebounded to strike out junior Dane Wisneski and sophomore Andrew
Valencia (2-for-4) to collect his fourth save and secure UF’s eighth
come-from-behind victory of the season.
