Nelson Maldonado came into the Harvard series with just two hits on the season.
After matching his season total with two hits against the Crimson on Friday night, the freshman outfielder hit his first career home run in Game 1 on Saturday giving the Gators a 5-1 lead and capping off a four run inning.
Florida went on to take Game 1 of the double header 9-2, behind home runs from Maldonado and junior Peter Alonso coupled with a strong start from A.J. Puk. UF has won 10 in a row.
The Gators (16-1) used small ball to score the game’s first run in the bottom of the fifth inning. After Jonathan India led off the inning with a double to left, Nick Horvath laid down a sacrifice bunt moving India to third.
Dalton Guthrie scored India after hitting a sacrifice fly to center for a 1-0 lead.
Harvard (2-4) quickly tied the game up.
Crimson right fielder Connor Quinn hit a ball to right fielder Jeremy Vasquez who came up and fired the ball home. Josh Ellis was rounding third and Vasquez’s throw was on a line to catcher JJ Schwarz. Schwarz bobbled the ball and tagged out Ellis to end the inning.
However, Crimson coach Bill Decker argued that Schwarz didn’t field it cleanly and home plate umpire Jeff Gosner got together with the two other umpires and reversed the original call, calling Ellis safe allowing Harvard to tie the game up.
Gators coach Kevin O’Sullivan argued the reversal of the game, but to no avail.
The run ended any chance of Puk picking up his first win of the season. Puk had his best start of the season on Saturday, commanding his fastball and his slider.
The junior left-hander had arguably his best start of the season throwing 5.1 innings, allowing just one hit, the one earned run, walking four and striking out three.
Puk’s velocity also saw a jump. After hovering around 92-93 mph on his fastball in his last start, Puk’s first pitch was 95 mph and he touched 97 at one point.
Florida re-took the lead on a Jeremy Vasquez RBI ground rule double in the bottom of the sixth, scoring Schwarz, setting up Maldonado’s three-run home run.
Alonso added a three-run shot of his own in the bottom of the seventh.
Freshmen relievers Brady Singer and Michael Byrne tossed 3.2 innings combined to finish the game off.
Contact Luis Torres at ltorres@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @LFTorresIII.
Nelson Maldonado follows through on his swing during Florida's 12-3 win against Florida Gulf Coast on Feb. 21, 2016, at McKethan Stadium.
