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GAINESVILLE, Fla. (May 5, 2015) – The USF baseball team saw a career night from starter Tommy Eveld, but it wasn't enough in a 5-1 loss to the No. 10 Florida Gators. The Bulls are now 29-19-1 on the season while the Gators improved to 36-13. 

In his first appearance in over a month, Eveld (1-2) threw a career-high five innings and struck out a career-high six batters in the loss. He gave up five runs on nine hits but walked just two. Mark Savarese threw 2.2 innings of shutout ball, striking out two and walking just one. Gainesville native Joe Adel recorded the final out of the night, picking up a strikeout to end the eighth inning.

“Our pitchers represented themselves very well tonight,” head coach Mark Kingston said. “These guys haven't pitched a ton of innings this year, but against one of the best offenses in the country, they threw very well.”

The Gators took an early 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second. After a perfect first inning from Eveld, the redshirt sophomore gave up three doubles to begin the second, allowing Florida to plate two runs. Eveld settled down after the third hit and struck out a pair around a groundout to end the inning.

USF got on the board in the top of the fifth inning on an RBI groundout by Kevin Merrell. Austin Lueck and Zac Gilcrease led off with back-to-back singles to put two on for Kyle Teaf. Teaf laid down a sacrifice bunt to move the runners into scoring position before Lueck came home on the groundout by Merrell.

“Kevin is a hard worker and he's gotten better and better since the day he got here,” Kingston said. “We're really happy with where Kevin is now, but we think the future is even better for him.”

Florida would answer right back in the bottom of the inning on a two-run home run by Richie Martin. The Gators would tack on another run on an RBI single by Buddy Reed.

Lueck, Merrell, Gilcrease and Levi Borders all recorded a hit for the Bulls. Luke Maglich drew a walk to extend his on-base streak to a team-leading 20 games, while Merrell extended his on-base streak to 17 games with a single.

Up next for the Bulls is a three-game road conference series at Tulane. The Bulls and Green Wave will meet on the diamond May 8-10. USF wraps up its eight-game road stretch with a midweek game against Jacksonville Tuesday, May 12.

For more information on the USF baseball team, follow @USFBaseball on Twitter.

- #GoBulls -