Tennessee Evens Series with Gators

Saturday, May 11

Gainesville, FL

3 PM

Florida Gators

30-22, 10-16

Tennessee

34-17, 11-15

Tennessee

Florida

Brady McConnell homered twice in the loss.

Tennessee Evens Series with Gators

Saturday, May 11, 2019 | Baseball

Box Score

By: Daniel Apple

WHAT HAPPENED: No. 24 Tennessee had a five-run fifth inning and held on late to beat Florida 8-7 on Saturday afternoon at McKethan Stadium in Gainesville.

The Gators got the tying run to the plate in each of the last three innings but could not get the tying run across, stranding five runners over the final three frames.

Tennessee opened the scoring in the first on a solo home run from Andre Lipcius, but UF answered immediately as Brady McConnell hit the first pitch he saw over the right-center field wall to make it 1-1.

In the fourth, Kendrick Calilao drove in two runs with a double to give Florida a 3-1 lead.

The Vols rebounded with five runs in the top of the fifth. Lipcius singled home two runs and Alerick Soularie's two-run homer gave Tennessee a 6-3 lead. They pushed the lead to four in the sixth inning on Justin Ammons' RBI single.

Wil Dalton cut the lead to two with a two-run home run to left field in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Ricky Martinez's RBI single proved to be the winning hit, giving the Vols an 8-5 lead in the top of the seventh inning.

Florida's best rally came in the seventh. McConnell homered to left to start things off and Austin Langworthy and Nelson Maldonado followed with back-to-back singles.

Brady Smith lined a double to right center to bring home Langworthy, but Maldonado got tripped up rounding third and had to hold.

Dalton lined a ball down the third base line that was snagged by the third baseman Lipcius, who made an accurate throw home to beat Maldonado, who was trying to score from third. Calilao struck out to end the threat.

STANDOUT STAT: 14 – Brady McConnell's 14 home runs ties the Florida single-season record by a shortstop. Mark Ellis hit 14 in 1998.

FROM THE COACH: Head Coach Kevin O'Sullivan – On today's game: "It's kind of been a broken record the entire year. It's frustrating, it's not like they don't know. The bottom line is when we get momentum and score some runs, it's the pitchers' responsibility to go out there and put up a zero. It's that simple. [Justin] Alintoff did that and we got some momentum back in our dugout, the dugout was excited, it's just unfortunate, but it is what it is."

UP NEXT: Florida and Tennessee wrap up the series Sunday at 1 p.m.