Florida Atlantic falls, 7-3, at No. 6 Florida Owls drop mid-week date with Gators in Gainesville
Florida Atlantic jumped out to a 3-0 first inning lead on No. 6 Florida, but the Gators overcame that early deficit to defeat the Owls, 7-3, on Tuesday at McKethan Stadium.
FAU (31-19), which is leading the Sun Belt conference race, took the 3-0 lead when Andy Mee hit a three-run homer to left center.
However, after getting three hits in the first, the Owls would only be able to muster four the remainder of the way and weren’t able to push anymore runs across.
Florida (34-12) answered with a run on a sacrifice fly by Brian Johnson in the bottom of the first, but the Gators still trailed 3-1 in the middle of the third.
However, UF would knot the game at three when Preston Tucker drew a two-out walk and Austin Maddox belted the first pitch over the fence in left center.
The Gators got the go-ahead runs in the fifth when Nolan Fontana was a hit by a pitch and Matt den Dekker followed with a first-pitch homerun to right field.
Fontana, who was the only Florida player to have a multi-hit game, delivered his own homer in the seventh to put his team up 7-3.
Jeff Barfield worked four scoreless innings of relief—allowing just one hit—to get the win.
FAU’s Joey Burkhalter led the Owls with a 2-for-3 night at the plate.
The Owls won’t play again until May 18th when they travel to UCF.
Florida hosts SEC East rival Georgia this weekend at McKethan Stadium.
by Thomas “Bubba” Rosenbaum
DFN Sports Staff Writer
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