Ty Evans emerging and other takeaways from Florida baseball sweep at South Carolina
The Florida Gators (33-16, 11-13 SEC) have won 13 their last 15 games and 10 of their last 12 in conference play.
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Florida outscored South Carolina 39-8 over the three-game series, including pounding out a season-high 22 runs in a 22-3 win over the Gamecocks in the first game of a doubleheader on Sunday afternoon. That included UF scoring 11 runs in the top of the ninth.
"Usually, the winning team scores more runs in one inning then the losing team does throughout all nine," Florida baseball coach Kevin O'Sullivan said. "And we had three in the fourth, five in the eighth and 11 runs in the ninth."
UF won 9-5 in the first game of the series on Friday and 8-0 in the second game of a doubleheader on Sunday. With the Sunday win, O'Sullivan notched his 750th career win.
Here's what UF learned after sweeping the series over the Gamecocks:
Florida baseball can adjust without its leading hitter in the lineup
The Gators remained without starting shortstop Colby Shelton (.377, 7 home runs, 35 RBIs), who has missed UF's last four games with a hand injury.
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Without Shelton, Bobby Boser has filled in at shortstop while Brendan Lawson has moved across the diamond from first base to third base. Luke Heyman, Brody Donay and Landon Stripling filled in at first base over the weekend.
Without Shelton, Florida was still productive up and down the lineup, scoring 39 runs by belting 15 extra-base hits. Heyman had a big series, going 4 for 13 with three homers and 5 RBIs, while Lawson (8 for 14, 1 HR, 6 RBIs) and Boser (4 for 11, 4 RBIs) remained productive at the plate.
Florida baseball outfielder Ty Evans has a power surge left in him
After a disappointing start to the season, Evans has found his groove at the plate of late, going 5 for 13 with two home runs and 6 RBIs in the three-game series.
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Evans, who belted five home runs in the 2023 College World Series for UF, is batting .247 with three homers and 22 RBIs as a senior this season.
"We're not going to get to where we want to without him in the lineup," O'Sullivan said. "So, I'm really, really pleased for him."
Florida baseball can piece together its pitching staff through rain delays
Florida lost its starting pitcher on Friday night when righty Liam Peterson didn't come back after throwing just seven pitches before a three-hour rain delay. Then, on Saturday, freshman righty Aidan King only went 2 2/3 innings on Saturday in a game that was ultimately suspended due to rain.
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Peterson (8-2) came back to pitch 3 1/3 innings of relief in the completion of the suspended game on Sunday, allowing two runs to earn his seventh win of the season. Then, in the second game on Sunday, junior lefty Pierce Coppola made his first appearance since March 1 against Miami, pitching one scoreless inning to start a seven-inning game. Freshman Jackson Barberi (2-1) followed with 3 1/3 innings to pick up his second win of the season and Christian Rodriguez followed with 2 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing just one hit to earn his first save of the season.
"It's been kind of a weird weekend obviously, with the rain delays and lightning delays and all that type of thing," O'Sullivan said. "I thought that Liam did what he needed to do, he wasn't as sharp as he'd like to be today, but he did what he needed to do."
Up next
Florida will host USF on Tuesday night at Condron Family Ballpark (6:30 p.m., SEC Network Plus).
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Kevin Brockway is The Gainesville Sun's Florida beat writer. Contact him at kbrockway@gannett.com. Follow him on X @KevinBrockwayG1
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Florida baseball sweeps South Carolina. What UF learned in the series
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