College Roundup: Bulls Walk Over Gators In Gainesville

No. 7 Florida’s nine-game win streak ended in walkover of sorts on Tuesday.

How the Top 25 Fared

1. Oregon State off

2. Louisville won 6-2 vs. Vanderbilt

3. North Carolina won 7-6 vs. Davidson

4. Texas Tech off

5. Texas Christian off

6. Mississippi State off

7. Florida lost 15-10 vs. South Florida

8. Long Beach State off

9. Kentucky won 5-2 vs. Indiana

10. Stanford won 4-0 vs. San Francisco

11. Clemson won 10-5 vs Furman

12. Virginia off

13. Auburn lost 8-2 vs. Alabama-Birmingham

14. Cal State Fullerton won 4-3 vs UCLA

15. Louisiana State lost 7-5 vs South Alabama

16. Wake Forest lost 5-3 vs. High Point

17. Arizona lost 14-13 vs. Arizona State

18. Arkansas off

19. Southern Mississippi off

20. Texas A&M off

21. Michigan won 4-2 vs. Central Michigan

22. St. John’s off

23. South Florida won 15-10 vs. No. 7 Florida

24. Oklahoma off

25. Nebraska off

The Gators’ pitchers walked 17 batters, the most in 10 seasons under head coach Kevin O’Sullivan, and No. 23 South Florida raced out to a big lead and held on for a 15-10 win.

“Well, it’s been a year of firsts for a lot of things. . . . Tonight, we walk 17 guys,” O’Sullivan told floridagators.com. “The most we had ever had (in my 10 years) was 10. The most remarkable part of the whole thing is only made one error. When you walk 17, you look up at the board and you’ve made three or four errors. Five of the guys that threw tonight were freshmen. . . . For these young pitchers, if you keep harping on walks, it’s like free throw shooting in basketball, it’s contagious. I think tonight was just one of those nights where it got to a point and it just got out of hand.”

The Bulls’ Joe Genord hit a two-run homer in the first and USF scored six times in the fourth to put the game seemingly out of reach. Jonathan India and J.J. Schwarz homered for the Gators, who scored five runs in the ninth before the comeback fell short.

While Florida’s streak ended, No. 2 Louisville won its 12th game in a row, beating visiting Vanderbilt 6-2 in the sixth annual Battle of the Barrel. Sophomore Josh Stowers homered and drove in four runs and junior Devin Hairston was 2-for-4 to back junior Rabon Martin, who pitched four innings in his first career start.

No. 9 Kentucky defeated Indiana, 5-2, to bounce back from its first series loss in a month thanks to two freshmen hurlers. Lefthander Zack Thompson tied a season high with 10 strikeouts, allowing just two runs in six innings while righthander Chris Machamer pitched two scoreless innings.

“Tonight was just another example of how we don’t let things linger or bother us,” head coach Nick Mingione told ukathletics.com. “We’re able to just flush it and move on.”

A first-inning solo shot by Matt Lloyd didn’t faze Thompson.

“I kept attacking,” Thompson told the website. “I just had to compete tonight. I left a lot of balls up in the zone. I didn’t really have control of my secondary. I just had to compete and I had my guys behind me making plays and that really helped.”

South Alabama scored three times in the ninth and then held on to upend No. 15 Louisiana State 7-6 at Alex Box Stadium. Pinch hitter Matt Bolger’s safety squeeze tied the game and the Jaguars scored twice more in the inning. The win was a boost to South Alabama’s hopes for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Freshman Andy Arguelles limited the Tigers to four hits in 6.1 innings in relief and struck out eight batters to earn the win for the Jaguars. Junior Greg Deichmann hit his 16th homer for LSU.

Meanwhile, No. 3 North Carolina got its fifth straight comeback win, beating Davidson 7-6 after being down 6-3 in the ninth. Jake Sidwell and Cam Johnson homered to give Davidson a 6-3 lead heading into the ninth. But UNC, which drew a season-high 16 walks, tied the game thanks to a pair of bases on balls by Davidson closer Westin Whitmire.

After a sac fly by Zack Gahagan made it 6-4, the Heels got three straight two-out singles to tie the game, with Logan Warmoth’s hit making it 6-6. Ashton McGee’s RBI double in the 10th won it, as UNC improved to 38-9.

No. 13 Auburn saw its skid continue, as it lost to Alabama-Birmingham, 8-2. The Tigers have lost four games in a row, including a weekend sweep by Alabama.

“It’s not just our opponents, but it has more to do with us,” Auburn head coach Butch Thompson told auburntigers.com. “Sometimes a team hits a stretch and I think we are in ours now. We will have to make sure we evaluate ourselves and not just our opponents. We need to make some adjustments. We need to learn our lessons quickly at this point in the season.”

No. 16 Wake Forest got blitzed for four runs early by High Point and was held in check by nine pitchers in a 5-3 loss at home.

“To go on the road and pick up a win over a top-25 ACC team is a great accomplishment,” head coach Craig Cozart told highpointpanthers.com. “This was a complete team win today. We played outstanding defense, got some very good pitching and some timely hits from guys like Hunter Lee, Josh Greene and Carson Jackson. This is something we can build on as we head into our last two series of the season.”

In a late game, Arizona State broke a 10-10 tie with Arizona with four runs in the ninth and then held on for a 14-13 win. The Wildcats had the tying run on but Nick Quintana, who homered earlier in the game, flied out for the final out.