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Florida Gators
GAINESVILLE — Gavin Kash hit two home runs, including a two-out two-run shot in the bottom of the eighth inning, and Texas Tech beat top-seeded Florida 5-4 Saturday night at the Gainesville Regional.
Florida (45-15), the No. 2 national seed, plays Connecticut in a loser-out game on Sunday. The winner will have to beat Texas Tech (41-21) twice to advance to the super regionals.
Zac Vooletich singled to left before Kash hit a 3-2 pitch over the wall in left center to give the Red Raiders a 5-3 lead in the eighth inning.
The Gators took a 1-0 lead when Wyatt Langford scored on Josh Rivera's sacrifice fly in the top of the fourth. Kevin Bazzell walked before Austin Green hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the inning and Kash led off the bottom of the fifth with a homer to give the Red Raiders a two-run lead.
After Langford drew a lead-off walk in the top of the sixth, Jac Caglianone hit a two-run shot over the wall in left to make it 3-3.
Dale Thomas hit a one-out pinch-hit triple and then scored on Cade Kurland's groundout in the ninth but the rallied died there.
"We are disappointed, but have to flush it," Florida head coach Kevin O'Sullivan said. "Nothing else to do but win the next three games. We have to win tomorrow against UConn and then move on hopefully to the second game and be successful there and then move on to the next one. It's really that simple. We put ourselves in this position but it's certainly doable. We have enough pitching to do it, we just have to win tomorrow."