ORLANDO — Florida’s lineup was supposed to experience a power outage this season. Home runs would be at a premium, and UF was going to rely heavily on manufacturing runs.
On Tuesday night, the Gators continued to show they aren’t one-dimensional offensively.
No. 17 Florida (3-1) used four infield hits and two homers to defeat UCF (2-2) 5-3 in Orlando in front of a record crowd of 3,678 at Jay Bergman Field.
“I don’t think we should label ourselves as a speed team or a power team,” freshman shortstop Richie Martin said. “We just do anything we can to win.”
Sophomore Zack Powers, who hit two grand slams and drove in nine runs in UF’s 16-5 win against Duke on Sunday, continued his torrid pace.
Powers led off the fourth inning by taking an 0-1 pitch from Knights starter Brian Adkins deep to right field to put the Gators up 3-0.
Moments earlier, the teams’ benches exchanged heated words following UCF catcher Ryan Breen’s hard slide into second baseman Casey Turgeon on an inning-ending double play.
Returning Florida players accounted for only 14 of its 75 home runs last season. In 2013, the Gators have hit five home runs — only one fewer than last year’s squad had through four games.
“We’re not going to hit 75 like we did last year,” coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “But we’re going to hit a fair share.”
First baseman Vickash Ramjit, who gave the Gators a 2-0 lead with a leadoff home run in the second inning, helped add some insurance to Florida’s lead in the top of the sixth. Ramjit advanced from first to third on Powers’ bloop single to left field.
“As soon as I saw it up, I knew the left fielder was really far back and it had a chance to fall,” said Powers, who finished 3 for 4 with a walk. “I was just hoping it would.”
Three batters later, both Powers and Ramjit scored to put the Gators ahead 5-0. Knights shortstop Tommy Williams’ throw off a Harrison Bader ground ball bounced past first baseman James Vasquez and into right field.
Florida also showed its ability to play small ball.
Martin reached on an infield single on the second at-bat of the game. He broke for second on a steal attempt and advanced to third on a bouncing a single off Turgeon’s bat that found a hole between the third baseman and shortstop. Justin Shafer then drove Martin in with a sacrifice fly to right to give UF a lead that it would not relinquish.
Martin and freshman left fielder Harrison Bader combined to go 5 for 10 with five singles.
“Zack and Vick are more our defined hitters,” Martin said. “We just try and get on base in front of them so they can get some RBIs and we can cause some havoc on the bases.”
UF plays its fifth game in six days tomorrow night against Georgia Southern at 7 p.m. at McKethan Stadium. Shafer will start on the mound against the Eagles.
“It’s awfully early, and we still have a lot of stuff to work on,” O’Sullivan said. “But I was awfully proud of the way they played tonight.”
Contact Josh Jurnovoy at jjurnovoy@alligator.org.
Sophomore Zack Powers is congratulated by teammates at home plate after hitting his second grand slam during Florida’s 16-5 win against Duke on Feb. 17 at McKethan Stadium.
