Gators advance to SEC Tournament finals
Florida’s Mac Guscette connects with the baseball during an at-bat against Texas A&M on Saturday. (Twitter photo, University of Florida Athletics, for Starkville Daily News)
Florida starting pitcher Timmy Manning winds up to throw against Texas A&M Saturday. (Twitter photo, University of Florida Athletics, for Starkville Daily News)
HOOVER, Ala. — Sophomore Timmy Manning and freshman Fisher Jameson combined to throw a six-hitter, Jud Fabian gave No. 7 seed Florida the lead for good with a second-inning home run and the Gators advanced to the championship game of the SEC Tournament with a 9-0 romp over No. 2 seed Texas A&M on Saturday.
Florida (39-21) will play the winner of Saturday night's semifinal nightcap between No. 1 seed Tennessee and 12th-seeded Kentucky in today's title game.
Manning (1-0) went the first five innings, allowing five hits and a walk while striking out six to earn his first decision of the season. James yielded just one hit over the final four innings, striking out four for his first save.
The Gators scored at least one run in every inning but the first and eighth.
BT Riopelle had three of Florida's nine hits in the game, driving in a run and scoring twice. Lead-off batter Wyatt Langford had a double and a two-run single. Catcher Mac Guscette had a two-run single that made it 4-0 in the fourth.
Prager (1-3) took the loss for the Aggies (37-18). He allowed four runs — three earned — on three hits and three walks in 3 2/3 innings.
Florida 11, Alabama 6
HOOVER, Ala. – Wyatt Langford hit a lead-off home runs for No. 7 seed Florida in the first and second innings and the Gators never trailed in the win over Alabama on Saturday to avoid elimination at the SEC Tournament.
Langford walked to lead off the sixth inning, advanced to second on a single by Sterlin Thompson and scored when BT Riopelle grounded into a 1-6-3 double play to give Florida a 7-6 lead.
Langford finished 2-for-5 with a walk, three RBIS and three runs scored. Mac Guscette went 3-for-5 with a three-run homer in the ninth, Jac Caglianone was 3-for-4 with two doubles and Josh Rivera had three RBIS - including a single that scored Caglianone and Jud Fabian to give the Gators a 4-0 lead in the first.
Alabama's Dominic Tamez had an RBI single in the bottom of the first and Zane Denton added a threerun home run to tie it heading into the second and Drew Williamson hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the third to make it 6-6.
Florida's Nick Ficarrotta (4-0) replaced starter Anthony Ursitti in the third inning and struck out six while allowing five hits and two walks over 6 1/3 scoreless innings of relief.
Caden Rose went 3-for5 with a double and a run scored for Alabama (31-27).
Kentucky 7, LSU 2
HOOVER, Ala. — Tyler Bosma struck out 10 and allowed just one hit in six innings, Jacob Plastiak and Adam Fogel hit solo home runs and No. 12 seed Kentucky rolled to a victory over No. 4 seed LSU in the SEC Tournament on Saturday.
Kentucky chased LSU starter Jacob Hasty (2-1) with a two-run first inning. John Thrasher led off with a single and moved up two bases on a wild pitch and a catcher-to-first base putout on a strikeout. Daniel Harris followed with an RBI single before stealing second. Chase Estep walked and Harris stole third. Ryan Ritter walked to load the bases before Harris scored on a wild pitch for the second run. Oraj Anu walked to reload the bases, ending Hasty's day. Eric Reyzelman got the final two outs to end the threat.
Plastiak homered in the second to make it 3-0 and the Wildcats added two more runs in the fourth on Hunter Jump's sacrifice fly and an RBI ground out by Estep to go up 5-0.
Kentucky scored its final two runs in the fifth on Fogel's homer and a run-scoring single by Jump.
LSU (38-20) chased Bosma in the seventh after Morgan reached on an error by Harris and came around to score on a triple by Tyler Mcmanus. Wyatt Hudepohl entered and surrendered a sacrifice fly to Gavin Dugas for the Tigers' first run. Brayden Jobert followed with a walk and Drew Bianco singled with two outs.
Daniel Harper — making his 100th career appearance, second most in program history — took over for Hudepohl and ended the threat by inducing leadoff batter Dylan Crews to ground out to second. Harper didn't allow a hit in retiring the final seven batters to wrap up the victory.
Bosma (4-3) allowed two runs — one earned — and two walks.