Gators baseball blasts five homers in 10-6 fall exhibition win over USF

Florida baseball's bats showed up for the fall opener. The Gators hit five home runs in the first three innings and beat South Florida 10-6 in an exhibition Friday night at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa.

The game started about an hour late because of weather, according to UF.

Five homers in three innings

• Ethan Surowiec and Caden McDonald hit back-to-back, two-out, opposite-field home runs in the first inning for a 2-0 lead.
• USF went ahead 3-2 in the second on a three-run homer by Joey Brenczewski, but Drew Dickerson answered right away with a two-run shot to left for a 4-3 Florida lead.
• Florida scored six runs in the third. Surowiec hit his second two-run homer, Brady Harris drove in two with a single to left-center, and Dickerson hit a 427-foot, two-run homer to make it 10-3.

Dickerson went 2-for-2 with two homers, a walk and a team-high four RBI. Surowiec went 2-for-3 with two homers, three RBI and a walk. McDonald and Jon Embury each had two hits.

On the mound

Right-hander Aidan King started and threw a perfect first inning with two strikeouts. Nine Gators pitched one inning each, and six of them didn't allow a run. Jackson Barberi got the win after working out of a bases-loaded jam in the third. USF scored once in the fifth, once in the seventh on a solo homer by Jack Lutz, and once in the eighth on a sacrifice fly. McDonald, who also homered, pitched a 1-2-3 ninth.

Florida has won nine straight fall exhibitions dating to 2022, according to UF. (More: Aidan King starts as Gators baseball opens fall exhibitions vs. USF in Tampa.)

Up next

Florida plays Troy at a neutral site in Pensacola on Saturday, Oct. 24. First pitch is 2 p.m. ET.

Sources: floridagators.com recap, @GatorsBB, Andrew Riedell, Nick Marcinko.