The FGCU baseball team (9-4) upset No. 5 Florida (10-5) with a 7-2 victory Wednesday night at Alfred A. McKethan Stadium. With the win, the Eagles are now 8-14 against the Gators while going 35-74 against Power 5 Conference teams and 18-47 against Top 25 national teams.
Senior Evan Lumbert (2-1) earned the win after taking a perfect game into the seventh inning against the Gators, who had averaged 14.6 runs over their last five games. Lumbert recorded six strikeouts and gave up just two runs on three hits that all came in his last inning. The senior's outing was also highlighted by four straight Ks and a four-pitch inning in the sixth.
"Lumbert was really special tonight. He controlled the baseball game for us and gave us a chance to win," head coach Dave Tollett said. "We played well all the way around. We hit seven doubles off of a good pitching staff. Garcia made some great plays at third base. McGarry came in and was really good, as well. It was our best complete game that we've played so far this season."
"Credit FGCU, they played good tonight," said UF head coach Kevin O'Sullivan They played really good defense, especially infield defense. They got a lot of ground balls. They played hard and played well enough to win."
"I got them together in the first inning, I could tell in the first inning [the energy was off]," said O'Sullivan on the team's energy. "That's the thing that young players need to understand. We're still worrying about what happened on Sunday against Winthrop, and then what happened last night. It's over, we've got to move on. Good or bad, you've got to move on to the next day and I thought we carried the last three games into today. Once again, that was the message last night, not to get too far ahead of ourselves and I could tell in the first inning so I got them together. Usually that happens in the middle of the game. We just weren't ready to go. That's my fault, I guess, I just don't understand. We go over the scouting report, take in and out, pretty much the same routine. It's up to the players in the dugout to get into it but tonight it was dead. It was disappointing, but that's why I addressed it there in the first inning."
The Eagles broke their series streak of 10 scoreless innings by putting up two runs in the top of the second. Senior Jay Hayes cranked a ball out to center field that took a hop over the fence and into FGCU's bullpen. The ground-rule double brought in freshman Joe Kinker (Northport, FL/Venice HS), who had reached on a single.
Junior Richie Garcia tacked on an RBI of his own with a sacrifice fly that brought in junior Kohl Gilmore.
The Green and Blue added three runs to their lead in the bottom of the third. Kinker reached on an error by the Gators' third baseman that scored junior Alex Brait, Hayes cranked out an RBI single that brought senior Keith Stevens home and Garcia earned a walk on a full count that brought in Kinker's second run of the night.
After a pair of quiet innings, Kinker scored again in the top of the sixth with a single drilled into the gap in left center field. Stevens was able to score from second on the play, giving FGCU a 6-0 advantage.
Sophomore Christian Proffitt extended the Eagles' lead to 7-0 with a sacrifice fly in the top of the seventh that brought in Hayes.
The Gators' offense finally came up with a two-run response in the bottom of the seventh inning, which ended Lumbert's chances at finishing with a no-hitter.
Junior Hunter McGarry finished out the game for the Green and Blue. In two innings of work, the junior struck out two and gave up just one hit.
The last time the Eagles beat Florida was when they claimed a two-game midweek series by scores of 7-3 and 3-2 in 2017. At the time, Florida was ranked at No. 2. That was the same year that FGCU won their most-recent A-SUN Championship.
Up Next:
The Eagles will return to Swanson Stadium to host Quinnipiac (3-4) for a three-game series this weekend, March 8-10. First pitch against the Bobcats is scheduled for 5 p.m. on Friday. Saturday's game will begin at 2 p.m. and the series finale will start at 11 a.m. on Sunday. Quinnipiac has also upset a ranked team this season. On Saturday, Feb. 23 the Bobcats claimed an 8-6 victory at No. 20 Wake Forest.
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