GAINESVILLE, Fla. ? The University of South Florida baseball team lost, 12-2, to the University of Florida Gators Tuesday night at McKethan Stadium.
The Bulls drop to 26-25 overall while the Gators improve to 31-20 on the season.
Leading off the sixth inning, senior Joey Angelberger blasted his seventh home run of the season, scoring USF's first run of the game.
Junior Addison Maruszak had a pair of hits and drew a walk in USF's 51st game of the year. He picked up USF's first hit of the game, a single to left field in the first inning, then doubled down the left line in the sixth, immediately following Angelberger's home run.
Sophomore starting pitcher Teddy Kaufman was tagged with his third loss of the season, giving up two runs from five hits, while striking out one Gator in 3.0 innings.
The Gators took the early 2-0 lead in the second inning, then tacked on four more in the bottom of the fifth to go ahead by six. The Bulls picked up one in the sixth, but Florida collected five in the bottom of the seventh to extend their lead 11-1. USF had one hit and drew a pair of walks to score one in the eighth, but Florida answered with one of their own in the bottom half of the inning.
Two innings after Angelberger's home run, Maruszak drew a walk and freshman Stephen Hunt reached on a fielder's choice, then junior Chris Rey singled through the left side to score Maruszak. Rey collected his 50th hit and 33rd RBI on the play while Maruszak scored his team-leading 49th run of the season.
In the top of the ninth, junior Mike Consolmagno, Angelberger and Hunt all drew walks to load the bases, but a strikeout and a fly out ended the game.
USF left 15 players on base and was out-hit 7-17 in the game.
Freshman Ryan Lockwood did not play in the game, and is not expected to bat or play the field the rest of the season due to a fractured left hand. Lockwood's 30-game hitting streak, the longest active streak in the country, stays in tact as long as he does not have an official at bat for the remainder of the season.
USF will close out the regular season against Notre Dame May 15-17 at Red McEwen Field. Thursday and Friday's games will begin at 7 p.m. and Saturday the teams will wrap up the three-game BIG EAST series at 1 p.m. USF's four seniors ? Joey Angelberger, Eric Baumann, Charles Cleveland and David Torcise ? will be honored prior to the Friday night game.
The first two games of the set can be seen on Catch 47 with Joe Girvan and Wade Boggs providing the play-by-play and color while Saturday's game can be dialed in on XM Satellite Radio, channel 203. All three games can also be heard live on 1010 Sports as well as seen on USF Press Pass.
