Live Updates: No. 4 Florida Gators look to take series at Texas A&M

The No. 4 Florida Gators are looking for a series win on Saturday night against the Texas A&M Aggies. coverage on SEC Network at 6 p.m. ET. Right-hander Hurston Waldrep (6-2, 4.74 ERA) takes the ball for the OGators while southpaw Troy Wansing (2-2, 6.69 ERA) gets the start for the Aggies.

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Notes from the Gators’ win over the Aggies on Friday

Florida won its sixth-straight game including its fourth-straight in SEC play.With his solo home run in the seventh inning, Kurland set the single-season home run record (14) for a Florida second baseman.Ted Rich previously owned the record with 13 home runs in 1992.Florida improved to 4-0 when tied after six innings.Riopelle connected for his eighth home run of the season in the second inning and his ninth in the sixth.The performance marked his first multi-homer game of the season.Neely improved to 10-for-10 in save chances.Rivera extended his team-leading on-base streak to 20 games.Florida has struck out 496 batters in 403 innings – translating to 11.1 per nine innings.The Gators have 484 hits through 47 games (10.3 hits/game).The Gators have scored in 47.7% of batted innings (180 of 377).Florida improved to 12-13 all-time against Texas A&M.The Gators are 11-7 in the series under Head Coach Kevin O’Sullivan and 4-3 in College Station.

Quotes

On game one…
“I thought we came out and swung the bats well offensively. Scored two in the second, one in the third and one in fourth. That’s kind of been our MO all year long. We keep kind of tacking on runs here and there. Credit A&M.

“The big three-run homer off of Brandon. I thought he pitched good. Honestly, I think the biggest difference in the ballgame was our bullpen. Everyone kind of came in and did their job. We didn’t leave anybody out there for very long. Brandon (Neely) walked a couple guys there and I think he was a little disappointed with himself.”

“At the end of the day, he made some really big pitches when he needed to. He got his changeup going against a really good, young hitter. The bottom line is when you’re playing on the road, sometimes you’re not going to get the benefit of the doubt. He made the big pitches when he needed to.”

On the bullpen…
“(Philip) Abner was really good. Cade (Fisher) got two ground balls and came in in a tough spot. Ryan (Slater) came in and got a strikeout to end the inning. Then Philip pitched great again. He threw the ball across the plate. Neely, even though he put himself in a difficult situation, he made some really good pitches there in the end.”

On Gators catcher BT Riopelle’s performance…
“That was probably one of the better at bats he’s had in a while, left-on-left. I thought Cade (Kurland) had a really good swing on a ball he hit out to right. BT had two home runs and their guys did a good job too. Most of the runs were manufactured with home runs — on both sides. At the end of the day, you’ve got to limit the walks on the road. Other than the ninth, we only walked two guys through the first eight.”

On the importance of taking the opener…
“You get to this part of the season, it’s hard to win any Friday night, especially on the road. They’ve got an older lineup. Like I said, every game matters. It just gets a little more magnified when you get to this part of the season. Going into the weekend, we were two back with nine to go. It’s not easy. — i’s a lot easier to lose than it is to win. It’s harder to win. Our bullpen did a real nice job. We scored enough.”

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