Rene Lastres' triple leads Gators rally against UNF

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — For four innings UNF starter Clayton Boroski was perfect. Twelve Florida Gators had been to the plate with none reaching safely. The fifth would be the unraveling of Boroski and the Osprey. The Gators used four hits to score four runs, led by Rene Lastres’ two-RBI triple in a 7-2 midweek win.

It was just the second start of the season for Lastres. The sophomore catcher played sparingly in 2022 before tearing his UCL, which required season-ending surgery. You wouldn’t have known that anything had been wrong with Lastres’ arm based on this throw.

Thou shall not run on Rene Lastres pic.twitter.com/lYEDFE6V6V

— Nick de la Torre (@delatorre) March 14, 2023

Lastres got it done with his arm in the top of the fourth and then with his bat in the fifth. Boroski carried a perfect game into the fifth inning. He started the next frame walking Josh Rivera, ending perfection. BT Riopelle ended the no-hit bid with a sharply hit ball through the right side, sending Rivera to third. Rivera scored on a Ty Evans single before Lastres drove in two more with his triple to right center field.

“I think the big at bat was the one by Rene. I think he played really well tonight,” Kevin O’Sullivan said of Lastres. “(He) Blocked a lot of balls in the dirt, threw out a guy at second, obviously hit the triple that opened it up. It was a great game for Rene and I’m happy he had the opportunity to do that.”

Fisher Jameson, Nick Ficarrotta, and Brandon Neely combined to throw seven scoreless innings of relief out of the bullpen.

“Fisher came in and threw the ball well. The bottom line with his outing is that he made some pitches with runners on and that’s something we haven’t been doing,” O’Sullivan said. “Fic was outstanding, kept his pitch count down. Brandon Neely threw some really good hard cutters and commanded the ball.”

Next up for the Gators

Florida will open SEC play with Alabama this weekend. The Crimson Tide lost a home series to Columbia last weekend. It was their first two losses of the season.

The series will start on Thursday night with a game scheduled for Friday and Saturday as well. However, the forecast in Gainesville calls for a 70% chance of rain on Saturday and there’s a chance that Florida and Alabama could play a doubleheader on Friday.

“The way this works is you gotta get ahold of the SEC office. You’ve gotta get permission to play two on a certain day. There’s a percentage of rain that it needs to meet in order to have that happen. It does look like the weather on Saturday is certainly going to rain at some point. In the morning, for sure, maybe in the afternoon. The one thing is encouraging is that it does look better Saturday night.

“Regardless if you play Thursday-Friday-Saturday or Friday-Saturday-Sunday, the rules still apply, whether it’s a Saturday or Sunday finish.”

The SEC changes its rule on travel restrictions for the 2023 season.

“The SEC has also revised the inclement weather policy related to the final game of a conference series on Sunday when the visiting team does not have classes on the following day (Monday). The policy specifies if the visiting team’s institution does not have classes the following day (Monday), general curfew policies shall be waived. If the curfew is waived, no game may start after 10 p.m. local time or resume after midnight local time.”

That means Florida and Alabama would be allowed to play the game on Saturday as long as it started prior to 10 p.m. EST.

Notes

• Evans produced his team-leading eighth multi-RBI game of the season.
• Ficarrotta pitched a season-high three scoreless innings.
• Lastres recorded his first-career game-winning RBI on his first-career triple.
• Florida saw its streak of homering in 15 consecutive games come to an end, which marked the Gators’ longest such streak in the last 25 years.
• Rivera extended his team-leading reached-base streak to 19 games.
  • Two other Gators also have double-digit reached base streaks: Caglianone (18) and Robertson (16).
  • Kurland’s 17-game streak came to an end on Tuesday.
• Florida has struck out 217 batters in 160 innings – translating to 12.2 per nine innings.
• Through 19 games, Florida has a run differential of plus-120.
  • The Gators have scored in 86 of 150 batted innings this season (57.3%).
• The Gators have a nation-leading 228 hits through 19 games (12.0 hits/game).