USF pitcher Mike Clarkson had a night he’d like to forget. After the right-hander held Florida to two hits through the first four innings, the Gators sent 10 batters to the plate and scored six runs on five hits in the fifth en route to a 12-1 victory on Tuesday night at McKethan Stadium.
Connor Mitchell started the offensive outburst with a one-out single into right field. Harrison Bader advanced him to third on a hit-and-run single in between first and second base. A Richie Martin RBI single up the middle and a wild pitch scored two runs, giving Florida (23-19) its first lead against South Florida (26-15).
The Gators didn’t look back. The fifth inning was Florida’s fourth frame this season with six or more runs. The previous two occurrences — six runs against Duke on Feb. 17, eight runs against Mississippi State on April 7 and 10 runs against South Carolina on April 13 — both led to wins. The Bulls used three pitchers in the inning.
“We were a little bit dead up there the first part of the game,” catcher Taylor Gushue said. “That inning was huge. I think it put us over the hump.”
Right-hander Ryan Harris entered the game in the top of the sixth with runners on second and third and no outs. His first pitch hit the batter in the upper back.
Then, he went to work. Harris, whose fastball clocks in as high as 94 miles per hour, retired the next three batters with two strikeouts and a lineout to Bader in left field.
“[My fastball] has been my go-to (pitch) all year,” Harris said. “I’ve been throwing it pretty well. I didn’t have my best command today, but I can miss around the zone a little bit. Sometimes it doesn’t bite me.”
Harris handed the ball to O’Sullivan as he walked off the mound after recording the first two outs in the top of the seventh. Before stepping foot on the infield grass, he flashed a smile to Gushue. The right-hander had a good reason to be happy.
“Ryan has been a bull this whole season,” Martin said. “He’s real key to our bullpen. That’s one of the things the coaches stress a lot is rebound runs, so we try our hardest to not let any runs score after we score.”
Florida added to its lead with four runs in the sixth. Martin, who entered the game with seven RBI, drove in four runners on Tuesday, including three on a sixth-inning triple.
South Florida failed to capitalize again in the eighth, when the Bulls put runners on second and third with no outs.
Although the Gators failed to put a runner on second base until the fifth, they finished the game 8 for 9 with runners in scoring position.
“You just want to get a good pitch. It doesn’t have to necessarily be a strike,” Gushue said. “You want to be aggressive and put the ball in play. That’s all you want to do in that situation.”
Contact Adam Pincus at apincus@alligator.org.
Florida celebrates during a 4-0 win against Ole Miss on March 31 at McKethan Stadium.
