UF baseball team wins another home series after a 6-2 victory over No. 5 Vanderbilt

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (WCJB) - A 76 minute rain delay did not keep No. 7 Florida from pulling off a home series win vs No. 5 Vanderbilt, 6-2. The win ties up the two teams at the top of the conference.

Hurston Waldrep was on the hill in the first inning. Waldrep rang up two batters, then play at Condron Ballpark was delayed until 7:50pm. Waldrep’s evening ended at 10 pitches and Ryan Slater (8-0) comes in for relief. Slater chalked up his first strikeout to set the tone. Slater went four strong innings with five strikeouts and surrendered two hits off one earned run. The bullpen gave up only five hits and struck out 11 batters.

Head coach Kevin O’Sullivan said about the bullpen’s performance, “There’s a lot of stuff to gain from it. Ryan (Slater) came in and did a great job. He gave up a couple of hard contacts there in that last inning so we went to Philip (Abner) and he did his job. (Brandon) Neely did his thing. Our bullpen picked us up today. What turned into a really tough situation at the beginning of the game turned into a positive.”

It was scoreless through the first three innings until the bottom of the third. Cade Kurland smashed his 15th home run of the year to left field, 1-0. The Commodores (35-15) tied it up at 1 off RJ Austin’s solo homer. In the bottom of the fifth inning, the Gators (39-12) loaded up the bases for Wyatt Langford. Langford bashed it to left center for a two-run double as Florida increases their lead to 3. Jac Caglianone quietly scored his 73rd RBI of the season off a sacrifice fly to left field, 4-1. Josh Rivera was back in the lineup this evening and singled to left field bringing home Langford. Three hits on the night for Rivera. A four-run inning for the Gators, 5-1.

O’Sullivan said about Rivera’s return to the lineup, “It was weird writing the lineup up (on Friday) without him right there in the middle. He had a really good night coming back with three hits and made a great play to his left, probably saved a run. A really good night, honestly.”

Kurland finished the night with a RBI single in the bottom of the sixth inning as Deric Fabian scores, 6-1.

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