Florida Gators stay perfect on the road with 6-1 win over Tennessee

There’s no place like home unless you’re the No. 3 Florida Gators baseball team. The Gators used the long ball and three stellar pitching performances to beat the No. 11 Tennessee Volunteers 6-1 and remain perfect on the road this season.

A week after a career-worst outing, Brandon Sproat took the mound with a purpose. The righty walked one but struck out three Vols to end the first.

After trading zeros in the first inning, the Gators (26-5, 8-2 SEC) plated a lone run on the Volunteers (21-9, 4-6 SEC) in the top of the second. Cade Kurland and Colby Halter set the table by reaching on a fielding error and single to right, allowing Michael Robertson to open a 1-0 lead with an RBI infield single to shortstop.

Sproat locked in. The junior blanked the Vols for the second-straight frame in the bottom of the fourth. Florida then broke the game open in the fifth, scoring four runs on back-to-back jacks by Rivera and Riopelle. With two on, Rivera launched an opposite-field big fly off the scoreboard for a three-run tank while Riopelle followed with a moonshot into the left-field seats to make it 6-1.

“Brandon was outstanding. I could tell during BP that our guys had a different mindset. They were locked in. I could tell that Brandon was a little bit different with his demeanor tonight. Really proud of the way he bounced back from last week,” Kevin O’Sullivan said after the game. “Offensively, we didn’t do a whole lot the first three innings but we did get Dollander’s pitch count up — 68 through three. Obviously, Josh’s three-run homer was huge. Jac had a couple hits again. Cade had a really good night at the plate. It was a good road win, but most importantly, I was just really pleased with how we approached the game from the beginning.” 

The Gators’ bullpen picked up where Sproat left off. Florida got 3.1 innings of shutout ball from Philip Abner and Brandon Neely. The trio of Florida pitchers struck out 18 Volunteers — a season-high for Tennessee and Florida’s pitching staff.

Weather in Knoxville

Florida and Tennessee face off in game two on Friday, scheduled for 7 p.m. ET on SEC Network. Hustron Waldrep (5-1, 4.74 ERA) toes the rubber for the Gators while Chase Burns (2-2, 4.97 ERA) opposes him for the Vols.

However, there is expected thunderstorms in the Knoxville area on both Friday and Saturday. Florida and Tennessee cannot play on Sunday (because the series began on a Thursday). Stay tuned to Gators Online for updates on when the series will continue.

Gators Notes

• Florida rose to 7-0 on the road this season.
• Florida improved to 8-2 to open SEC play and is now 21-7 across the last 28 games against SEC opponents dating back to 2022.
• Sproat picked up his fifth win of the season, improving to 10-1 across his last 14 starts.
  • Sproat has lost one decision across his last 14 starts.
  • Prior to dropping last Friday’s start vs. Auburn, Sproat’s last loss occurred on April 23, 2022 vs. No. 1 Tennessee. – marking 342 days in between losses.
• Robertson extended his team-leading on-base streak to 28 games.
• Caglianone extended his hitting streak to nine games, which includes eight multi-hit performances.
• Florida has struck out double-digit batters in 22 of 31 games.
• Florida has struck out 347 batters in 268 innings – translating to 11.7 per nine innings.
  • The Gators tied their season high with 18 strikeouts in game one vs. Tennessee.
• Through 31 games, Florida has a run differential of plus-150.
  • The Gators have scored in 127 of 247 batted innings this season (51.4%).
• The Gators have 352 hits through 31 games (11.4 hits/game).
• Florida improved to 155-94 all-time against Tennessee including 25-20 under Head Coach Kevin O’Sullivan.
  • The Gators are 68-48 in the series on the road (13-9 under O’Sullivan).
  • The Gators snapped their five-game losing streak against the Vols.