GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The No. 5 University of Florida baseball team had just three hits Sunday afternoon against Mississippi State University, but one was all it needed.
Mike Zunino’s one-out home run in the bottom of the eighth inning lifted Florida past No. 25 MSU 2-1 in the final game of a weekend Southeastern Conference series at McKethan Stadium.
The victory gave Florida its third straight regular-season series win against MSU, not including last season’s Super Regional series win by UF. MSU dropped to 31-20 and 13-14 in league play, while Florida improved to 38-14 and 16-11. Six of the Bulldogs’ 14 league losses have been by a run.
“We put ourselves in a position and when we get there we can’t convert it,” MSU coach John Cohen said. “We are always on the edge because everything is a close game. I am proud of how the kids are competing, but we just aren’t doing it offensively.”
Ross Mitchell was dominant in relief. Mitchell entered in relief of starter Evan Mitchell, who was lifted with two outs in the third. Ross Mitchell retired the first 10 batters he faced before issuing a leadoff walk in the seventh inning. Caleb Reed and Jacob Lindgren followed in relief and each got critical strikeouts to work MSU out of the tight spot in the seventh.
Lindgren (1-2) wasn’t as fortunate an inning later. After getting the leadoff out, Zunino’s second hit of the weekend and 13th home run of the season gave the Gators the lead for good.
For a second straight day, MSU scored first with a run in the third on Hunter Renfroe’s fourth home run of the year. The Bulldogs had threatened earlier with four combined walks and a hit batsman in their first two at-bats.
Florida answered with a lone run in the bottom half of the inning. Vickash Ramjit singled and took second on a throwing error. After a sacrifice bunt, a groundball out by Preston Tucker brought home the game-tying run.
The Bulldogs stranded three in the fourth and two more in the fifth. Things then got tough as the one-two relief punch of Steven Rodriguez and Austin Maddox (3-2) closed the door. That duo walked two and allowed no hits in the final 4 1/3 innings.
“Not many people are hitting Maddox or Rodriguez in our league,” Cohen said. “However, we have to be better offensively. We are disappointed, but not disappointed in the effort.”
MSU stranded 13 runners Saturday in a 2-0 victory. It stranded 13 runners Sunday. MSU finished the weekend with four runs on 16 hits. Renfroe had seven of those hits. Florida had six runs on 13 hits.
“The kids have been through so much this year,” Cohen said. “It would mean a lot to them to have a big crowd show up to give them some support this week. They have competed and worked hard all year and deserve it. There is so much left in our season. There is so much we want to accomplish. And we can still reach those goals.”
MSU will close the regular season with four home games. It will play host to Central Arkansas at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. MSU then will play host to No. 9 University of Kentucky. The teams will play at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, 7 p.m. Friday, and 2 p.m. Saturday.
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