Jacksonville native Austin Maddox likes playing against his hometown rival North Florida.
The Gators first baseman went 4 for 4 and drove in five runs in UF’s 9-3 win over UNF last season, and on Wednesday, the sophomore hit a two-run home run to lift No. 8 Florida (37-12) over the Ospreys (25-22) 4-1 at McKethan Stadium.
“He’s one of those guys that when he comes to the plate that there’s always a threat that he’s going to do what he did tonight,” UF coach Kevin O’Sullivan said.
Maddox crushed a blast to left in the sixth, but the homer was just his third of the season and first since April 1 against Tennessee.
“Every day is a new day and you can’t really look at last year and think you’re going to do the same thing this year,” Maddox said.
“You just have to kind of take every game one game at a time.”
Maddox went 2 for 4 with one run and two RBIs and said Ospreys pitcher Joe Iorio hung a curveball for his left field blast.
Maddox turned on the pitch and sent it over the bleachers and into the parking lot, just creeping around the foul pole.
“It’s pretty rare (that I see pitches over the plate),” he said. “But I’m not going to make excuses for myself.”
After hitting 17 home runs as a freshman, UF coach Kevin O’Sullivan said Maddox has gotten a bad rap this season for his shrinking power numbers
“A lot of times he’s stung the ball, or hit it on the nose, or right at people,” O’Sullivan said.
“It was good to see him hit a home run there and separate us a little bit.”
Junior Alex Panteliodis got the midweek start for the Gators, tossing three innings and allowing just one hit and no walks on 37 pitches.
Once again, the left-hander’s day was cut short on a pitch count, but Panteliodis had his stuff working early and often Wednesday.
After the game, Panteliodis said his hip feels great after offseason surgery.
The southpaw said he is returning to his 2010 form when he lead the team in innings pitched, wins and strikeouts.
Six Gators combined to finish the game as O’Sullivan said he wanted to make sure his staff got plenty of work heading into this weekend’s pivotal series against No. 2 Vanderbilt.
The plethora of pitchers was a story of the game as UNF first-year manager Smoke Laval trotted out seven hurlers of his own.
Lefty Tommy Organ got the starting nod and went 2.0 innings, giving up three hits, an earned run and striking out two in 29 pitches before being pulled for Brandan Keen.
But no amount of UNF pitchers could stop the hot-hitting UF bats.
Florida catcher Mike Zunino extended his burning hit-streak to 13 games with a single to center in the third.
Zunino is hitting .471 (25-53) with 19 RBIs and 11 extra-base hits during the span.
Right fielder Preston Tucker also extended his hitting streak to 13 games after a 1 for 3 showing with two RBIs and a run scored.
Tucker started the scoring for Florida in the first with a sacrifice fly to center, scoring leadoff hitter Bryson Smith.
The Gators plated a run again in the third after Zunino stole second, advanced to third on a wild pitch and crossed home on a groundout to second from Tucker.
UNF got on the board in the sixth after Andrew Karmeris led off the inning with a standup double to left off of Tommy Toledo.
He scored on a base hit from Kyle Dahl for the Ospreys’ only run.
