Gators Baseball Fall to Miami, 10-6

The 4th-ranked Gators (7-3) couldn’t recover after digging a 5-0 hole in the first two innings Saturday afternoon, falling 10-6 to Miami in game two of their weekend series at Mark Light Field in Coral Gables. The Gators will send Jac Caglianone to the mound today to try to win the weekend (1 p.m., ACC Network+).

Florida freshman Liam Peterson (1-1) gave up a 3-run homer to Jason Torres in the bottom of the first and a 2-run homer to Edgardo Villegas in the second to stake Miami to a big lead it never relinquished. Once past the first two innings, Peterson settled down and shut down all nine batters he faced in innings three through five.  

“He just looked out of sorts from the beginning,” Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “I had to take a visit in the first. The pace was really slow. It didn't look anything like the other times he had pitched this year. The positive is he came back and put three zeroes on the board after that.”

The Gators closed the gap to 5-3 in the fifth when Dale Thomas hit his second home run of the season over the wall in left center. The Gators had runners on second and third when Luke Heyman took a called third strike to end the threat without further damage.

The Hurricanes scored four in the seventh off Luke McNellie to stretch the lead to 9-6. A three-run homer by Daniel Cuvet was the big blow of the inning.

“Obviously, the seventh inning kind of got away from us,” O’Sullivan said. “We hit the leadoff man in the bottom half of the order. It was just unfortunate because I did feel that if it stayed where it was we would have a chance there at the end."

Florida countered with three runs in the eighth on a two-run double by Tyler Shelnut and a sacrifice fly by Thomas but it was a case of too little too late.

UF SOFTBALL: Michigan snaps Florida’s 11-game winning streak

The 13th-ranked Gators (19-3) had their 11-game winning streak snapped by Michigan, 10-2, in a 5-inning run-rule loss in the final game of the Judi Garman Classic in Fullerton, California. Michigan jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the bottom of the first off freshman Ava Brown and then added six in the third to put the game away.

A pair of Michigan errors in the top of the fifth gave the Gators their only two runs of the game.

Heading into the game, the Gators had outscored four opponents in the tournament by a 37-0 margin. In the previous 21 games, the Gators allowed only 12 runs total.

The Gators are idle until next Saturday when they open Southeastern Conference play with a three-game series at 10th-ranked Alabama.

UF WOMEN’S GOLF: Third place finish at Gator Invitational

The Gators posted their fifth top-three finish of the season at the Gator Invitational finishing third, 20 shots off the pace of Arizona, which finished at 8-under for the 3-day event. Florida’s 12-over 3-day total of 852 was four shots off the pace of second place Clemson.

Florida’s Maisie Filler shot a final round -4 (66) to finish in a tie for third at 3-under 207. This was the fifth consecutive top 10 finish for Filler, the No. 1 ranked women’s player in the country. 

Next up for the Gators is the Briar’s Creek Invitational, March 11-12.