Gainesville, Florida – No. 14 Florida hit a season-high 21 hits and six homers in a 17-0 shutout against Florida A&M on Wednesday night.
Florida has now won seven straight games entering this weekend’s rivalry series at No. 22 Miami.
The win marked the Gators’ biggest shutout victory (8-2) since April 9, 2011 against Mississippi State (18-0). Florida also earned its most hits in a game dating back to April 23, 2019 against Florida Atlantic (21) while connecting for the most home runs (six) in a contest since April 7, 2015 against Stetson. (seven).
The Gators (7-2) kicked off the fireworks early, as Ju Fabian hit one out of the stadium for a long solo homer in the first inning. Sterling Thompson made back-to-back jacks, after Fabian’s moonshot with one of his own down center right to put Florida up, 2-0.
Toss with the head from the start, starting pitcher from Florida Garrett Milchin held the Rattlers (5-4) in check for the first five innings of play. The native of Windermere, Fla. pitched 5.0 shutout innings in his first start of the season, scattering two hits and a walks while scoring two strikeouts.
Thanks to Milchin’s prowess on the hill, the Florida offense was able to extend its lead in the fourth. With two withdrawals, Deric Fabien sparked the Gators with a brace into the right center field gap, allowing Rene Lastres to drive it home with a simple RBI down the middle. From there, a Tucker Talbott single and Colby Halter shot-a-pitch charged the bases, followed by a walk from J. Fabian to extend the lead to 4-0.
Florida opened things up in the fifth with the help of BT Riopelle. With runners in the corners, Riopelle homered to left field to score a trio of runs.
J. Fabian added another home run in the sixth, going deep to left center for a solo shot and scoring the sixth multi-home run game of his career. The Gators tacked on two more runs later in the frame, with Thompson entering on a failed takedown attempt and Riopelle hitting from the right side to score the pinch runner corey robinson.
Leading 10-0, Florida continued to swing hot bats into the final third of the game. Halter hit to right field to kick off the score in the seventh, while J. Fabian scored the frame’s second inning on a wild pitch. Guscette then ran through the house when D. Fabian dug in a field pick at second base.
The Gators had four more runs in the eighth, starting with an RBI single to the left of Guscette’s bat. To cap off the score of the night, Robinson hit a three-run homer to left field for the first of his career and brought the score to its final margin of 17-0. With Robinson’s home run, a Florida freshman has now hit his first career home run in four straight contests.
Milchin picked up his first win of the year, finishing with 5.0 scoreless innings on two hits and a walk with two strikeouts. Karl Hartman (2.0 sleeves), Philip Abner (1.0 round) and Anthony Ursitti (1.0 innings) have all produced zeros for the Gators over 4.0 combined innings of relief.
Florida A&M starting pitcher Shawn Host struggled with the loss, which went 1.0 innings with two earned runs allowed on three hits.
J. Fabian (3 for 4), Thompson (3 for 5), Wyatt Langford (2 for 3), Robinson (2 for 2), Riopelle (2 for 2) and D. Fabian (3 for 5) all had multiple hits.
NOTABLES
- Tonight’s game was Florida’s biggest shutout (17-0) against an opponent since April 9, 2011 against Mississippi State (18-0).
- Les Orange et Bleu completed their most home runs (six) in a game since April 7, 2015 against Stetson (seven).
- Florida has scored 10+ points in four straight games for the first time since April 7-12, 2015.
- Opponents have used 29 pitchers against Florida in the past four games, in which the Gators batted .419 (67 for 160) as a team while scoring 53 runs.
- The Gators achieved their biggest margin of victory (17-0) since March 3, 2019 against Winthrop (W, 28-5).
- Florida totaled its most hits (21) since April 23, 2019 against Florida Atlantic (21).
- Florida scored its most points (17) since Feb. 27, 2021 against Samford (W, 18-2).
- Robinson recorded his first career hit and home run.
- Robinson’s eighth-inning homer marked the fourth straight game that a Gator has hit their first career home run.
- With home runs in the first and sixth innings, J. Fabian won his sixth career multi-home run game.
- J. Fabian tied career highs for homers (two), runs scored (four) and hits (three).
- Milchin’s 5.0 scoreless innings mark the longest outing of his career without allowing a run.
- Thompson tied his career high with three hits.
- Riopelle tied his career high with four RBIs.
- Florida goes 33-6 in the program’s final 39 regular season games at Florida Ballpark.
- The Gators are 18-3 in their last 21 regular season home games.
- The Gators improve to 27-1 all-time against Florida A&M and now boast a nine-game winning streak against the Rattlers.
- The Gators are now brandishing a seven-game winning streak.
- Thompson and Halter extended their season-opening hitting streaks to 10 games.
- Halter has a 13-game hitting streak since last season.
- Lastres made his first career start for the Gators, going 1 for 5 with an RBI single and a run scored.
FROM HEAD COACH KEVIN O’SULLIVAN
At Garrett Milchin’s performance…
“I don’t think we put a certain number of innings on him, it’s more a matter of pitch count. He was really efficient. I think he threw 56 pitches in five. He went back to his ball curve or his slider. I thought he was really good and gave us a really good start. After the first four, it was still a four-point game. He did really well tonight.
On recent offensive success…
“I don’t know. It’s a game. I thought they were going to knock. That’s why after the opening weekend we met some good arms and we weren’t quite ready to go. play. We weren’t as relaxed as we are now. I don’t want to get too far ahead of us, but I know we have a really talented roster. We’re young. You’re looking over there tonight, we had six freshmen on the field in the latter part of the I think Rene did a great job behind the plate tonight, kept swinging the bat well. He’s really talented, obviously. Jorge DeGoti got his first hit tonight. corey robinson had two hits and his first home run. It was very fun. BT comes off the bench and opposes a three-run homer.”
On launchers entering an eruption…
“I don’t think they ever take it off. I just think sometimes the game is speeding up on them. The game is kind of slipping away from them, so they’re not comfortable regardless of the score. That “Could be like it was tonight or it could be a tight ball game. I think for some of these young pitchers, the game is picking up speed. It’s part of the learning process. I can’t stress enough.” Karl comes out and does what he did. Philip and Ursitti, they are three really talented arms. They really played effectively tonight.”
FOLLOWING
Florida travels to Coral Gables, Fla. for a three-game series at No. 22 Miami this coming weekend. The first two matches will be broadcast live on ACC Network Extra while Sunday’s final will be broadcast on ACC Network.
