Auburn
junior Damek Tomscha broke a scoreless tie in the fifth with a solo shot and
junior Ryan Tella connected on a three-run dinger in the sixth to lead the
Tigers (31-20/11-16 SEC) to a 4-1, series-clinching win over Florida
(28-25/13-14 SEC) on Mother’s Day at McKethan Stadium. The Tigers ended a
four-series losing streak to the Gators dating back to a 2-1 triumph during the
2006 season in Gainesville.
After
redshirt freshman right-hander Justin Camp threw 4.1 shutout innings in his
starting debut, sophomore Chase Williamson (3-0) gave up one run over 2.2
innings to pick up the win and junior Terrance Dedrick registered the final six
outs to collect his eighth save of the season and second of the series.
Freshman Eric Hanhold (Palm Harbor, Fla.) (0-3) surrendered just one run
and four hits over a career-high five innings for Florida.
“I
thought Eric (Hanhold) did a nice job,” head coach Kevin O’Sullivan said.
“I thought he threw the ball well, we just didn’t get the bats going today for
whatever reason. Auburn’s pitcher (Justin Camp) was in his first career start,
he mixed his pitches and threw his breaking ball for strikes early in the
count. We weren’t able to put some good swings on them. It was a 1-0 game for awhile
there, but, obviously, the sixth inning hurt us, pitching-wise.”
“Eric’s
throwing the ball downhill and he’s got three pitches that he throws for
strikes. He’s got a really good arm, but this is the first time that he’s been
really extended to a little above 70 pitches. To be honest, with one run over
five innings, he did his job, we just need to get some of those other guys out
there.”
Sophomores
Taylor Gushue (Boca Raton, Fla.) and Justin Shafer (Lake Wales,
Fla.) had consecutive singles with two down in the first inning against Camp
before the right-hander had redshirt sophomore Zack Powers (Seffner,
Fla.) ground out.
Making
his first start since March 24 at Vanderbilt, Hanhold retired the first eight
batters of the contest before yielding a two-out single through the left side by
junior Blake Austin (3-for-4) in the third inning.
Florida
put its first two runners aboard in the bottom of the frame, as senior Cody
Dent (Boynton Beach, Fla.) drew a leadoff walk and freshman Richie
Martin (Brandon, Fla.) (3-for-5) raised his hitting streak to six games
with a single into left field. Sophomore Casey Turgeon (Palm Harbor,
Fla.) sacrificed his teammates into scoring position with a bunt but Camp
responded by setting down Gushue and Shafer on pop-ups.
Senior
Cullen Wacker (2-for-4) and senior Garrett Cooper (2-for-4) started the fourth
with back-to-back base-hits into left field. Although Hanhold struck out junior
Patrick Savage, a wild pitch enabled Wacker and Cooper to advance. A walk to
junior Dan Glevenyak loaded the bases with one down and Hanhold had freshman
Jordan Ebert pop up to Turgeon at second base before fanning Tella after a
12-pitch at bat.
Tomscha
gave Auburn a 1-0 advantage by beginning the fifth inning with a homer into the
left-field bleachers. It was his seventh big fly of the year to tie for the
team lead.
Freshman
Harrison Bader (Bronxville, N.Y.) led off the home part of the stanza with
a single into right center field and Martin collected his second hit of the
afternoon with a single into right center field with one down. Williamson took
over for Camp (4.1 IP, 5 H, 3 K, 1 BB) and had Turgeon ground into an
inning-ending 6-4-3 double play.
Hanhold
worked a career-high five innings in which he permitted four hits and one runs
and freshman Jay Carmichael (Cape Coral, Fla.) came to the mound to
start the sixth. The righty plunked Savage with one down and a two-out infield
single by Ebert brought freshman Danny Young (Boca Raton, Fla.) out of
the bullpen for Carmichael (0.2 IP, 1 H, 2 R). Tella greeted the reliever with
a three-run homer to right field to expand the Tigers’ margin to 4-0.
Sophomore
Ryan Harris (Jupiter, Fla.) came in for Young (0.1 IP, 1 H, 1 R) prior
to the seventh and worked the final three innings with four strikeouts and zero
runs allowed.
Florida
narrowed the gap to 4-1 in the eighth and had the bases full with one out but
could not move any closer. Martin legged out a bunt single and Turgeon followed
with his fifth double of the campaign into the gap in right center to put the
Gators on the board. Dedrick replaced Williamson (2.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R) and issued
a walk to Gushue before having Shafer fly out to left field. Powers worked a
walk to fill the bags with one down and Dedrick countered with a strikeout of
senior Vickash Ramjit (Miami, Fla.) and had a grounder by sophomore Josh
Tobias (Greensboro, N.C.) force Powers at second base to preserve the
Tigers’ three-run lead.
The
Gators will wrap up their regular season at Georgia (18-31/5-19 SEC) with a
three-game series beginning on Thursday at 7 p.m. The games can be heard on the
Gator IMG Sports Network with Jeff Cardozo and Steve Russell.
