GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Sometimes an extended break can help a team recharge. Sometimes you just want to get back out there to refuel.

The latter was the case for the Gators after a trip to Tallahassee on Tuesday resulted in an eight-run loss and long bus trip home. Fortunately for the fifth-ranked Gators, they had only one day off before Texas A&M visited town for the first Southeastern Conference series of the season for both clubs.

Florida beat the Aggies on Thursday, repeated the feat on Friday, and then on Saturday afternoon at Florida Ballpark/McKethan Field, capped the SEC's first sweep of the season with an 8-4 victory.

"I think we've been challenged and we answered that challenge this weekend,'' said reliever Franco Aleman, who saved Saturday's win with five strikeouts over three innings. "We showed everybody what we're really about. We played our best baseball of the whole year. Losing to any team 10-2 – that's not the Gator standard."

Certainly not the standard the program has established under head coach Kevin O'Sullivan. He's more used to performances like the Gators turned in during their three-game sweep over Texas A&M. In the series finale, Florida (16-5, 3-0) pounded 13 hits and got home runs from third baseman Kirby McMullen and center fielder Jud Fabian to send the Aggies (15-7, 0-3) home still winless in conference play. Florida outscored the Aggies 24-9 in the series.

Timely hitting and stellar outings from the starting pitchers paced Florida's sweep. The starting trio of Tommy Mace (Thursday), Jack Leftwich (Friday) and Hunter Barco (Saturday) combined to limit the Aggies to eight runs (five earned) in 20 innings in the series. Overall, Florida's starters combined to go 3-0 with a 2.25 ERA and strike out 26 and walk only two.

That will win you a lot of series.

"I don't know if I could ask anything more from the way they pitched,'' O'Sullivan said afterward. "That's what we're going to need to be successful in this league."

Second-year freshman left-hander Barco benefited Saturday from Florida's offensive fireworks, earning his third win of the season. Barco tossed a season-high 96 pitches and limited Texas A&M to three runs (two earned) over six innings. Barco stuck out nine, allowed nine hits and walked none. After loading the bases and allowing an RBI single to Austin Bost in the top of the seventh, O'Sullivan turned to Aleman with nobody out and the bases jammed full of Aggies.
 
Texas A&M trimmed Florida's lead to 6-3 when Ray Alejo scored on a passed ball, but Aleman prevented further damage by striking out three consecutive batters. The Gators promptly padded their lead in the bottom of the seventh when Fabian led off with his team-high eighth homer of the season and freshman catcher Mac Guscette added an RBI single.

Meanwhile, Aleman pitched a scoreless eighth and ninth to finish off the Aggies.

"He was great. It was a really tough spot to be in,'' O'Sullivan said. "Franco was really competitive. He kept making pitch after pitch after pitch in a really tough spot. I've trusted Franco from all along."

Florida grabbed an early lead off Aggies starter Jonathan Childress with a run in the first and that held until a three-run homer by McMullen in the third that put the Gators up 4-0. McMullen finished 2-for-3 with three RBI and Fabian went 3-for-4.

The Gators pitched, hit and defended well to flash the kind of potential that earned them a consensus No. 1 national ranking in all the major polls to start the season. While they have won 16 of their first 21 games, they had not played as well as they did the past three games.

The trip to Tallahassee seemed to light a fire.

"I'm really proud of the way the guys battled today and the way they bounced back from Tuesday night," O'Sullivan said. "That was obviously a really frustrating game all the way around. It's amazing when you are coaching young people how quickly the script can get flipped. Last Tuesday feels like three weeks ago, the way they responded with their energy, their focus, the way the starters rebounded and kind of fed off each other. The offense was outstanding all weekend. Every time they scored today we seemed to answer right back.

"All in all, it was a great weekend. Really, really pleased with how they came out today. They had some bounce in their step. They weren't satisfied with just two wins."

And now the Gators must wait. They don't have another game scheduled until Friday when they open a three-game series at South Carolina. The Gators have played 18 of their first 21 games at home, so a new challenge awaits.

If it was up to O'Sullivan – he plans to make some calls to see if he can schedule a last-minute midweek game – the Gators would be back on the field staring at an opponent on Tuesday. As is, he has a scrimmage scheduled.

But for now, whenever the Gators play next, he seeks the same focus they showed in the dominant sweep of the Aggies.

"This is just one weekend, but I think we all saw, including myself, of what this team is certainly capable of,'' O'Sullivan said. "I think we have been fairly inconsistent up until this point. You could certainly see the intensity and focus was just different this weekend. We still have a lot of things to figure out as well. Ideally, I would love to be playing Tuesday. We just need to continue to play. I don't think taking a week off is the best for this team right now because we are feeling really good about ourselves."

Still, it's a lot better than the feeling after Tuesday's defeat and quiet ride home.
 
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Mac Guscette – A freshman catcher from Nokomis, Fla, Guscette had an impressive debut in conference play. He started all three games against the Aggies and went 7-for-11 with a double and three RBI in the series.

STANDOUT STAT: 6 – The Gators' sweep of Texas A&M, coupled with a three-game sweep of Missouri to close the 2019 regular season, gives them six consecutive SEC regular-season victories. That is the program's longest SEC regular-season win streak since a seven-game streak in 2018 (two wins over Arkansas, three against Vanderbilt, and two against Tennessee).

NEXT TIME OUT: The Gators do not play a midweek game for the first time this season and return to action on Friday night at 7 in the SEC road opener at South Carolina. The game will be streamed live on SEC Network+ and can be heard on ESPN 98.1FM/850AM WRUF.