Wyatt Langford swatted two solo homers in the defeat.
Lexington, Ky. – No. 4 Florida dropped game two at No. 19 Kentucky by score of 6-4 to even the series at Kentucky Proud Park on Friday night.
Wyatt Langford<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/wyatt-langford/15497> (2-for-4) popped two home runs in the defeat, marking the eighth multi-homer game of his career.
Langford gave the Gators (41-13, 19-10 SEC) an early one-run lead against the Wildcats (36-16, 16-13 SEC), depositing a 1-1 offering over the left-field wall for his 15th home run of the campaign. Kentucky got the run back in the bottom half of the frame, tying the game with an RBI single to left-center field off the bat of Devin Burkes.
UF starter Brandon Sproat<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/brandon-sproat/15508> rebounded in the second, using just 10 pitches to strikeout the side in order. Florida swiftly took advantage, with Jac Caglianone<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/jac-caglianone/15489> blasting a two-run shot to left-center field to put the Gators on top, 3-1.
In the fourth, the Wildcats knotted the game back up at three runs apiece on solo homers by Reuben Church and Grant Smith. One inning later, Burkes gave Kentucky its first lead of the night with an RBI double down the left-field line. Church added a two-run single to center before the inning was done to make it 6-3 in favor of the Cats.
Faced with a three-run deficit, Langford brought the Gators within two in the top of the sixth. Leading off the frame, the Trenton, Fla. native connected for his second homer of the night with another drive over the left-field wall.
Cade Fisher<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/cade-fisher/15513> relieved Sproat in the sixth and quieted the Wildcat offense. The freshman southpaw tossed three scoreless innings of relief, allowing two hits and two walks.
Sproat (7-3) was charged with the loss after allowing six earned runs over five innings. The right-hander surrendered seven hits and two walks while striking out seven.
Wildcats starting pitcher Zack Lee (5-2) picked up the win, going five innings with three earned runs allowed on two hits and two walks. He fanned six.
NOTABLES
* Sproat eclipsed 100 strikeouts in a season for the first time in his career.
* Sproat and Hurston Waldrep<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/hurston-waldrep/15517> became the ninth 100-strikeout duo in program history, and the first since Jackson Kowar (115) and Brady Singer (114) accomplished the feat in 2018.
* Langford swatted his 15th home run of the season in the first inning and his 16th in the sixth, moving past Cade Kurland<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/cade-kurland/15514> for the second-most jacks on the team behind Caglianone (28).
* Langford recorded his eighth-career multi-homer game.
* Caglianone extended his program home run record to 28 big flies with a two-run shot in the third.
* Sproat struck out the side in 10 pitches in the second inning – just one pitch shy of an immaculate inning.
* Florida has struck out 550 batters in 459 innings – translating to 10.8 per nine innings, which would mark a new program record.
* The Gators have 543 hits through 54 games (10.1 hits/game).
* The Gators have scored in 46.3% of batted innings (201 of 434).
* Florida is now 147-72-1 all-time vs. Kentucky including 63-39-1 in Lexington.
* The Gators are 26-21 in the series under O’Sullivan featuring a 12-11 mark on the road.
UP NEXT
Florida and Kentucky meet in the series finale on Saturday with coverage on SEC Network+ at 2 p.m. ET. Southpaw Jac Caglianone<https://floridagators.com/sports/baseball/roster/jac-caglianone/15489> (5-2, 4.47 ERA) will toe the rubber for the Orange & Blue.
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