Samford hits three homers, blasts Florida 12-7

By Adam Silverstein
May 15, 2012

Ending the regular season with a four-game road trip to the state of Alabama, No. 3 Florida Gators baseball was hoping to start out hot on Tuesday and go into the postseason on a high note. Instead Florida (38-15) was routed 12-7 by the Samford Bulldogs (34-19) at Griffin Field in Birmingham, AL.

Samford took it to UF freshman right-hander Johnny Magliozzi right out of the gate, scoring three runs in the bottom of the first and tagging him for two more in the second. Magliozzi (4-3, 1.2 IP, 7 H, 5 ER, BB, K) easily had his worst outing of the season but was not the only Gators’ pitcher to struggle on Tuesday.

UF relievers freshman RHP Ryan Harris, sophomore RHP Keenan Kish and sophomore LHP Daniel Gibson combined to allow seven earned runs on eight hits (two home runs) and two walks with five strikeouts in 5.0 innings.

The Bulldogs added two more runs in the fourth and jumped ahead 7-0 as right fielder Brandon Miller hit his first bomb of the game. Florida outscored Samford 7-5 over the duration of the contest, which allowed the hosts to maintain a more-than-comfortable five-run advantage through the end of the game.

Miller (2/4, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 3 R, BB, K) was just one of four Bulldogs to register two or more RBIs, while junior catcher Mike Zunino (1/4, HR, 3 RBI, R) provided most of the power for the Gators’ offense by homering in his second-straight game.

Florida did experience one other bright spot on Tuesday, however, as senior right fielder Preston Tucker’s single in the top of the seventh tied the school record for career hits with 319 (Mark Ellis). Tucker finished the game 2/3 with a walk and three runs scored.

Samford evened the season series with UF 1-1 as the Gators previously picked up a 5-3 win in Gainesville, FL on March 20.

Florida will look to rebound from their upset loss by taking their frustrations out on Auburn in a three-game series beginning Thursday at 7 p.m.

3 Comments

  1. Gatorgrad79 says:

    The tendency of this team to run HOT-COLD does not bode well for the post-season….

  2. Mike says:

    So much talent, but they just have never been able to put it all together

    • g8ter27 says:

      not since about the half way mark of the season. This is a team that may make it to Omaha, or may not win their own regional.

Join The
Discussion

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Top
WordPress Appliance - Powered by TurnKey Linux