Florida's bats finally came alive against Samford, but the offensive surge was not enough to overcome a rough day for the pitching staff.
UF starter Johnny Magliozzi lasted just 1.2 innings as the Gators (38-15) dropped a road game against the Bulldogs (34-19) 12-7 on Tuesday. In his limited outing, Magliozzi surrendered five earned runs on seven hits.
The bullpen did not fare much better. Florida coach Kevin O'Sullivan wanted to rest Austin Maddox and Steven Rodriguez, so he used Ryan Harris, Keenan Kish, Daniel Gibson and Bobby Poyner as relief for Magliozzi.
While Poyner pitched a scoreless 1.2 frames to end the game, his bullpen counterparts did not perform as well. Harris, Kish and Gibson yielded seven earned runs on seven in 4.2 innings of relief.
While the Gators tallied seven runs in the loss, an offensive dry spell in the early going took them out of the game early. Samford starter C.K. Irby kept Florida hitless through four innings while also helping his own cause.
Irby hit a bases-clearing triple to center field in the bottom of the first, accounting for all three Bulldogs runs in that frame. The three-base hit from Irby accounted for three of the seven runs the Bulldogs score in the first four innings.
Once Samford built a 7-0 lead, Florida began to push runs across the plate. However, the Bulldogs kept scoring.
UF pushed seven runs across the plate in the final five innings, including a two-out, three-run homer from Mike Zunino in the top of the seventh. Samford maintained its lead by scoring five runs during the same stretch, boosted by home runs in back-to-back at-bats by Brandon Miller.
The Gators will face the Tigers for a three-game series in Auburn, Ala., starting Thursday.
