Florida baseball drops crucial series opener against Georgia
Florida’s path to the NCAA Tournament got much harder after falling 9-4 against Georgia in the series opener on Thursday night.
Things started off ugly for Florida start Pierce Coppola, who had steadily improved in each of his first four appearances. He hit the first batter he saw, leading to a Charlie Condon single. A couple of flyouts advanced the runners and scored a run, and a Paul Toetz homer made it 3-0 in favor of Georgia early.
Coppola gave a leadoff homer in the second and was pulled in the third after putting the first two runners in scoring position. Jake Clemente took over and stranded both runners after striking out a pair.
Clemente sat down the first seven batters he faced only to get the intentional walk sign from the dugout with Condon at the plate. That threw off Clemente’s rhythm. Tre Phelps doubled for the second time, and a groundout brought in a run.
Toetz added another RBI to his stat line with a single to left and income Fisher Jameson took over for Clemente, allowing another run to score on a double before striking out Carter for out No. 3.
Florida didn’t make much noise while Georgia ran up the score, but Luke Heyman and Brody Donay homered in the third and fourth, respectively, to put something on the board.
The Gators didn’t score again until the ninth. Heyman homered for the second time, but that just made it a five-run game.
Recapping the rest of the arms Florida threw in the loss: Cade Fisher walked the only batter he faced, Ryan Slater gave up a home run to Carter in the seventh and Frank Menendez pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings despite allowing three baserunners (two walks, one hit).
Florida needs to win on Friday to have a shot at the NCAA Tournament. First pitch has been moved up to 1 p.m. ET in anticipation of inclement weather.
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