The #1 Florida Gators baseball squad survived in the season opener and the opening of a new $65 million stadium with a 7-5 win over in-state rival #21 Miami.
Florida Gators vs Miami Hurricanes
Starting pitcher Tommy Mace was on the mound after a very good season last year but was not selected in the draft due to the shortened season. He started the Florida Gators baseball team off on a good foot with a perfect first inning of work. In the second he got into some trouble by giving up a double and a walk before allowing a single to Miami’s right field Christian Del Castillo.
From that point he allowed no further damage and gave up one hit before being lifted in the fifth inning. The No. 1-ranked Florida Gators christened their brand new ballpark with a win over No. 21 Miami on Friday night. It was a dominant pitching performance from UF until the ninth inning when it allowed a four-run rally. Still, Florida held on for a 7-5 win over Miami in its season opener.
Miami starter Daniel Federman allowed a solo home run in the first inning to Nathan Hickey but settled down for perfect frames in the second and third innings. Things unraveled for a bit in the fifth inning and Josh Rivera and Kendrick Calilao open the inning with singles. HE induced Cory Acton to pop out but Jacob Young followed with an RBI single. Hickey stepped to the plate again and unleashed a double for to more runs and Federman’s day was done.
He finished with seven strikeouts and four earned runs and seven hits allowed in 4.2 innings of work. Jake Garland came in and complete the fifth inning unscathed. In the sixth, he surrendered a triple to Rivera and Calilao single him home. In the eighth, he gave up a two-run home run to Kris Armstrong to stretch and Gators lead to 7-1 heading to the ninth inning.
The Florida Gators baseball team appeared in charge going to the final frame but Miami got to freshman close Chase Centala by getting a single and drawing to walks and a sac fly to run the score to 7-4. Ben Specht came in to pitch and allowed a two-RBI double and a couple of sac fly ball to and Florida Gators baseball coach Kevin O’Sullivan removed him for Franco Aleman and he closed out the game for a 7-5 victory. Game two of the series will be held on Saturday, Feb. 20, 2021.
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Florida Gators Baseball Schedule 2021
Feb. 19-21: No. 21 Miami
Feb. 23-24: at North Florida
Feb. 26-28: Samford
March 3: FAU
March 5-7: Florida A&M
March 9: Georgia State
March 10: Stetson
March 12-14: Jacksonville
March 16: at No. 24 FSU
March 19-21: Texas A&M
March 26-28: at No. 18 South Carolina
March 30: No. 24 FSU (Jacksonville)
April 2-4: No. 6 Ole Miss
April 6: Stetson
April 7: Florida A&M
April 9-11: at No. 19 Tennessee
April 13: No. 24 FSU
April 16-18: Missouri
April 20: Jacksonville
April 23-25: at No. 23 Auburn
April 30-May 2: No. 4 Vanderbilt
May 4: Stetson
May 7-9: at Kentucky
May 11: at Stetson
May 14-16: Georgia
May 20-22: at No. 8 Arkansas
About the author– Tom Knuppel has been writing about baseball and sports for a few decades. As an avid St. Louis Cardinals fan he began with the blog CardinalsGM. Tom is a member of the United Cardinals Bloggers and the Baseball Bloggers Alliance. He also maintains the History of Cardinals website. More recently he has been busy at KnupSolutions and the primary writer of many sports at KnupSports and adds content at Sports 2.0. Tom is a retired High School English and Speech teacher and has completed over one hundred sportsbook reviews. He also can be followed on Twitter at tknup.
Feel free to contact Tom at tknuppel@gmail.com
