TAMPA - The University of South Florida baseball team made it look easy Saturday afternoon as it downed Florida A&M to claimed a 13-4 victory.

It was the third straight win for the Bulls, who are now just one game under five hundred.

Freshman lefty Nick Gonzalez got off to a phenomenal start in game two of the series, striking out six batters over the first four innings, while allowing only one hit through five and 2/3 innings.

In his last start, Gonzalez gave up only one earned run, but walked six in just four innings of work.

Against the Rattlers, he did not yield a walk, but did hit two batters. Gonzales went six innings, striking out eight and giving up only two hits to earn his first career win with the program.

The eight strike outs sets a career high in three starts.

"Coach Hernandez pretty much told me, 'If you think about walking, you're going to walk hitters,' so every time I came up to pitch, I always said something in my mind. (Like) 'First pitch strike, just stay with it and keep pounding the zone,' and good things happened," said Gonzalez. "(It) was my third start, but my first win, so it actually feels pretty good."

This is a great sign for the Bulls who are looking for depth in the rotation behind seniors Randy Fontanez and Andrew Barbosa. It also comes in the same week as junior Matt Reed's impressive pitching performance to beat the Hurricanes on Tuesday and Fontanez's eight-inning shutout against the Rattlers in game one of the series.

Plain and simple, the Bulls have won their last three games thanks to great pitching to go along with some timely hitting.

USF punished Florida A&M pitching early, scoring one run in the first, two in the second and three in the third to build up a solid lead. It was a strong performance for USF's offense as four different players had two or more hits in the game, helping USF cruise toward its fourth win of the season.

Senior leftfielder Junior Carlin went two-for-five on the day, including a two-out, two-run single in the second. Also contributing to the early lead, sophomore Chad Taylor had a two-run double in the third to make it 5-0. Taylor finished the day two-for-four with three RBI and two runs scored.

Home fans had a bit of a scare in seventh inning when the Rattlers quickly attained four runs to make the score 7-4 off of sophomore reliever Austin Adams, who faced six batters and lasted only 1/3 of an inning. Fortunately, senior Zack Pietrzyk was able to come in and get USF out of the inning before any more damage was done.

The Bulls out-hit the Rattlers 11-4, with three of those hits coming from freshman outfielder James Ramsay. He was three-for-four with one RBI and two runs scored in the game. Seeing two of the program's top freshmen steal the show on both ends Saturday afternoon had to have boosted Coach Lelo Prado's confidence in his team.

USF and Florida A&M will wrap up the three-game series in game two of the double-header Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. USF will send senior Kyle Eastham (2.57 ERA) to the mound in the series finale.

Game Notes
Jonathan Koscso extended his hit streak to a team-high six games.. He has hit safely in eight of nine games in 2011... USF out hit the Rattlers, 11-4, marking the fourth straight game the Bulls have outhit the opposition... Gonzalez's 6.0 inning start is the longest in three career starts... Gonzalez's ERA is now down to 1.38 on the season... USF did not commit an error... Trey Dahl made his first apperance of the season, working a perfect ninth... Reliever Zach Pietrzyk yielded his first pitch of 2011 in five appearances... The three hit day for Ramsay was the first of his career